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1 1 (January 9, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govekdo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Sern lnformning the Iegislitive debate since 1914 What Is Political Warfare? Background Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz wrote in his seminal book On War that war is the continuation of politics by other means. Historically, in Congress as well as in the broader policy community, the term political warfare described the synchronized use of any aspect of national power short of overt conventional warfare- such as intelligence assets, alliance building, financial tools, diplomatic relations, technology, and information dominance- to achieve state objectives. It was coined in the late 1940s by George F. Kennan, a key architect of U.S. strategy during the Cold War, as the United States began to come to grips with the challenge presented by the Soviet Union (USSR). As he wrote in his 1948 State Department memorandum Organizing Political Warfare We have been handicapped ... by a popular attachment to the concept of a basic difference between peace and war ... and by a reluctance to recognize the realities of international relations- the perpetual rhythm of struggle, in and out of war.... Political warfare is the logical application of Clausewitz's doctrine in time of peace. In broadest definition, political warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation's command, short of war, to achieve its national objectives. Such operations ... range from such overt actions as political alliances, economic measures, and 'white' propaganda to such covert operations as clandestine support of 'friendly' foreign elements, 'black' psychological warfare and even encouragement of underground resistance in hostile states. Popular terms used to describe this phenomenon in the current international security environment include strategic competition and gray zone competition or conflict. Yet political warfare, according to some scholars, is not mere rivalry or competition but is also a form of war: its objective, like that of every other form of war, is to impose one's own will on the opponent in order to achieve strategic objectives, to conquer and destroy the opponent's will to resist. In the United States, the military dimensions of this competition garner significant attention and resources. Yet if political warfare is an adequate lens through which to view this strategic competition, the nonmilitary aspects of the competition might prove equally if not more important, particularly as competitors deploy robust political warfare strategies. Present Day Challenges Most observers of contemporary international security trends contend that the United States and its allies are entering an era of unprecedented-and dangerous- Updated January 9, 2023 strategic complexity. In particular, the 2014 Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula and subsequent proxy war in eastern Ukraine was arguably a watershed moment in international security, as it awakened dormant concerns about an aggressive and revanchist Russia. Months before Russia's Crimea intervention, China began a territorial expansion as well, building artificial islands on disputed features in the South China Sea that it later turned into military outposts. Complicating matters some states are collaborating with non-state proxies (including, but not limited to, militias, criminal networks, corporations, and hackers) and deliberately blurring the lines between conventional and irregular conflict. Some states are also sowing confusion as to what constitutes civilian versus military activities. Recent events involving China and Russia have raised a number of questions that highlight this complexity: * Are sales of Chinese multinational Huawei's 5G networks around the world- including to key U.S. allies-an element of international development or a national security challenge? Similarly, is the Chinese- owned online platform TikTok an innocuous video hosting service or a national security threat? Or do these actions fall somewhere on a continuum? * Are infrastructure investments underwritten by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) about improving Chinese access to foreign markets, or is it a de facto way to establish a global presence that could be used for security and defense purposes-or both? * Is Russian production and dissemination of media with pro-Moscow narratives to Russian minority groups in neighboring countries routine messaging, or is it designed to destabilize NATO countries? Likewise, is Russian interference in U.S. and European elections in 2016, as described by the intelligence community, an act of hostility? * Some European and Commonwealth countries that have maintained strong economic and political relationship with the United States are becoming increasingly economically dependent on China. At what point does this interdependence, potentially underpinned by greater reliance on China-led economic institutions, alter the security calculus of U.S. Allies and partners? Altogether, these events underscore to many observers that the United States must be prepared to compete with other powers- powers that are willing to employ both military and nonmilitary means to accomplish their objectives and potentially reshape the world order.

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