Irregular Warfare in an Era of Great Power Competition
Develop a short essay which addresses the following questions:
Does irregular warfare in the context of Great Power Competition have fundamentally different characteristics than irregular warfare against small insurgent powers? Why or why not? Defend your answer with material from the course.
Support and defend your position.
Length: 750-850 words.
*When you place your in-text citation within the answer, please input your page number where you found the information. Example: (Hodges 2003, 176)., Hodges (2003, 176) discussed..., In a 2003 article, Hodges (176) discussed.
The instructor likes a decent amount of in- text citations within the paper. Please site your sources throughout.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS:
Please see notes from my instructor regarding this essay. I hope this helps with writing the paper. Thank you.
Thinking about Irregular Warfare
As you work on your essay on how similar or different irregular Warfare in Great Power Competition is from the small-scale insurgencies of the recent past, there are some themes that we should pay attention to in a historical context. We shouldn’t just think about recent irregular conflicts, but analyze many others throughout history. For instance, few people really understand how the Serbians destabilized the Balkans before the Great War broke out, specifically regarding border conflicts and terrorism with Austria and other Balkan states. Greater powers argued over and around the Serbs, which helped create the impetus for the Great War in 1914. The American Revolution is another example because it is an irregular war stuffed within a conventional one. In fact, Mao Zedong was heavily influenced by George Washington’s generalship during the American Revolution during his fight against Nationalist China in the Chinese Civil War (and also against the Japanese in their conquest of China). I’d also look at how irregular warfare was utilized during the Cold War and how the great powers worked with their proxies but also were influenced by them.
There are a few things that I should also point out. While irregular warfare does present a lot of problems for conventional armies, they are not superhuman and we shouldn’t over-determine it. Too often people think that the jungles of Vietnam will magically transport to XYZ area. They also overthink how irregular forces can operate- and give them strategic powers that they don’t have. For every Vietnam War, there’s a Malaysian Emergency or Filipino Insurrection. I’d also look at what happens when irregular forces try to stand up as conventional forces. Also, many irregular/grey zone tactics won’t work if a conflict goes “hot” and conventional measures that were off-limits are no longer.
We should also consider the role that the media plays in irregular wars (in the past through to the present), and how they act as a force multiplier and influencer regarding the conduct of the war. Don’t forget that the media has to fill space on their 24/7 news networks and online outlets need clickbait. It’s also important to understand how the military reacts to media- and also pay attention to politicians who want to stay in office, or remove a rival from it (often with the support of the media). This is not to over-determine the value of the media or the political situation, but to point out how they can affect the outcome of all forms of war and impact great power competition.
Think about history- in the deep past and recent memory- and also work on thinking outside of the box.
Irregular Warfare in an Era of Great Power Competition
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Irregular Warfare In An Era Of Great Power Competition
Irregular warfare refers to the fierce struggle between state and nonstate actors fighting for legitimacy and influence over significant residents. The term has lasted for many years, although the concepts associated with it are older than the term itself. Irregular warfare comes with various characteristics depending on the context used. For instance, it has fundamental features in the context of Great Power Competition (GPC) compared to the irregular war against small insurgent powers.
Irregular warfare needs unified action. For irregular warfare to be successful, it depends on unified effort with the United States’ multinational and interagency partners (Department of Defence 2020, 5). The great power competitors possess predatory economic behavior and operationalized clandestine criminal activity as their component to approach irregular warfare. Recent experience shows that there is an effective and cheap strategy to gain strategic success in irregular war. For instance, the special and conventional operation forces collaborated in Syria and Iraq to enhance the long-lasting approach to irregular warfare. The strategies have been relatively effective compared to doing it on their own.
To operationalize an approach to irregular warfare, the GPC must establish a proactive way to manage the tempo of adversarial competition and embrace a resource-sustainable strategy to prevent violent extremist organizations (Department of Defence 2020, 5). Also, it is essential to integrate irregular warfare into the department's plans, procedures, and institutional processes to halt the reactive chain of investment in irregular warfare abilities.
Moreover, irregular warfare requires the department to focus on updating the approach to irregular warfare to overcome competitors' challenges. For instance, the department needs to grab the initiative and execute long-lasting and proactive campaigns using irregular warfare abilities to enlarge the space for competition and shape the environment and be ready for escalation to war if necessary. Moreover, a Taiwan influence operation involves military region 311 or public opinion Psychological Operations (Raska 2015, 2). However, the 311 is being broadcasted propaganda in Taiwan via the voice of the Taiwan Strait.
Additionally, irregular war aims to defeat an adversary by constructing legitimacy and influencing individuals. As a result, this warfare is fought to impact eastern Ukraine, for example, but not for tactical victories. The national defense strategy employs a form of competition that enables states to fight for influence and legitimacy via coercion and subversion, malign influence, and predation (Robinson 2020, 4). These fights are categorized by violent and nonviolent confrontation among proxies, special operational forces, and cyber domains (Smith 2022, 31). For example, building a Chinese island in the South China Sea is concerned with the forward staging of air defense capabilities because it aims to challenge the legitimacy of Philippine and Vietnamese claims to sovereignty on china's periphery.
Furthermore, irregular warfare is characterized by how armed groups pursue to acquire their political purpose. This process is a logical repercussio...