Shades of Gray Deterrence: Issues of Fighting in the Gray Zone

Matisek, Jahara

doi:10.5038/1944-0472.10.3.1589

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This is especially the case for influence operations and disruptive “gray zone” activities—activities that occur below the threshold of conflict. The gray zone refers, in part, to a contested information space where multiple entities, state and nonstate actors alike, compete to maintain control over ideas, messages, and information (Matisek, 2017; Morris et al, 2019; Pettyjohn & Wasser, 2019). With their emphasis on cultural reproduction and certainty generation, the rigid military structures favored by Hasselbladh and Ydén (2020) promote rigid thinking.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Military Organizations Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

Talbot

Fischer

2021

Armed Forces & Society

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This article is a response to a recent publication by Hasselbladh and Ydén in this journal, entitled “Why Military Organizations Are Cautious About Organizational Learning?” Through their use of dichotomous logic, the authors argue continuous learning poses a threat to the functioning of military organizations. The following commentary argues for a necessary coexistence between the mainstays of the traditional bureaucratic military organization presented by Hasselbladh and Ydén and continuous learning required by military organizations to compete and cope with technological advancements and gray zone challenges afforded by the modern operating environment.

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confidence: 99%

Military Organizations Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

Talbot

Fischer

2021

Armed Forces & Society

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“…The conflicts that pose a threat to the United States-led world order can be best described as gray zone conflicts in this view. For example, the Tamil Tigers insurgency in Sri Lanka cannot be described as a gray zone conflict because it was not a threat to the United States-led world order (Matisek 2017, 5). This definition lacks plausibility, though, as many other countries face similar threats, and the gray zone concerns changing the status quo —which is not limited to the international order.…”

Section: Gray Zone and Hybrid Warfarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many critics argue that gray zone warfare is just a tautological expression of terms such as hybrid warfare, fifth‐generation warfare, proxy warfare, unconventional warfare, and irregular warfare (see, e.g., Matisek 2017, 4). Such arguments, we submit, are not based on sound evidence.…”

Section: Multiple Perspectives On Gray Zone Warfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Gray Zone Warfare From Multiple Perspectives

2022

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This study examines the dynamics of gray zone warfare by analyzing its conceptualization in the literature and through its practice in several recent examples. Ever-increasing changes in the characteristics of contemporary warfare have complicated the security environment of the 21st century. Modern warfare inclines toward non-kinetic dimensions based on the principles of hybridity, soft power, and ambiguity. This changing nature of warfare has been defined and categorized in diverse ways, leading to numerous perspectives revealing more confusion than clarity. The terms “hybrid warfare,” “gray zone warfare,” “unrestricted warfare,” and “ambiguous warfare” have received unprecedented attention in recent years. A key contemporary challenge is to differentiate between war and peace because gray zone warfare occupies the space in between both these situations. Many contemporary conflicts are neither black nor white; instead, they fall in the middle of the two: the gray zone. These factors underscore the significance of evaluating and understanding the concept of gray zone warfare. The United States considers Russia, China, and Iran as revisionist states that employ gray zone warfare in various domains to challenge the United States-led world order. South Asia is also a manifested playground of gray zone warfare. The research further distinguishes between gray zone warfare and hybrid warfare and proposes strategies for countering this threat.

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“…That is why they were so eager to appear under the Euro-Atlantic umbrella. Like no other, these countries are aware of the danger of being involved in one of the so-called 'gray zone conflicts' created by Russia that are considered a new phenomenon in the practice and theory of international relations (Matisek, 2017;Mazarr, 2015;Brands, 2016;Elkus, 2015). That is why the countries of Central Europe are the most active lobbyists of the national interests of Ukraine, which holds the line on the borders of the gray zone conflict proliferation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shades of Gray in the War in Eastern Ukraine: ‘Neither War nor Peace’ Existence Zones, ‘Neither Truth nor Lie’ Silence Zones

Bulyk

Gridina

2019

Baltic Journal of European Studies

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The concepts of ‘gray zone conflict’, as one of the new phenomena in the theory of international relations, are given considerable attention in modern strategic researches of analysts, in particular American ones (Hel Brands, Adam Elkus, etc.). The definition of ‘gray zone conflict’ by American political scientists coincides with the definitions of domestic scholars in outlining the hybrid war in general, and Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine in particular. At the same time, qualifying the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the war in Eastern Ukraine as the sole concept of ‘gray zone’ shall be considered not to be entirely correct, since the scales tend to favor the definition of civil war, which is so advantageous to Vladimir Putin. On the other hand, the war in Eastern Ukraine has many shades of gray, which gives grounds to the use of the concept of ‘gray zone conflict’ on specific examples of the existence of real and imaginary gray zones (realities of existence and zones of silence) and to investigate their quantitative and qualitative characteristics, to determine the degree of the viral use of the gray zone of conflict by the state (as an object of aggression), which complicates its establishment. The possibilities/unacceptability of solving gray zone conflicts by “gray” methods are being outlined as well.

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Shades of Gray Deterrence: Issues of Fighting in the Gray Zone

Cited by 17 publications

References 6 publications

Military Organizations Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

Military Organizations Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

Understanding Gray Zone Warfare From Multiple Perspectives

Shades of Gray in the War in Eastern Ukraine: ‘Neither War nor Peace’ Existence Zones, ‘Neither Truth nor Lie’ Silence Zones

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