That is half considered one of a 3-part collection by Cipher Transient Skilled and former Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia Dave Pitts, who additionally serves as a member of The Cipher Transient’s new Grey Zone Group.
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Ten thousand North Korean troopers arrive in Russia to try to drive the Ukrainians from Russian soil, though North Korea isn’t at struggle with Ukraine.
China conducts persistent and aggressive Coast Guard incursions into Taiwan’s territorial waters to try to increase and normalize management over the Taiwan Strait, whereas additionally attempting to intimidate the Philippines to surrender its presence within the Second Thomas Shoal.
Russia, China, and Iran use cyber and disinformation operations to try to intervene in U.S. elections, a transparent violation of U.S. sovereignty and political independence.
Russia is conducting sabotage operations throughout Europe focusing on vital infrastructure to destabilize NATO allies and disrupt their help for Ukraine.
Pyongyang carried out 97 cyberattacks between 2017 and 2024 with complete harm of round $3.6 billion.
Welcome to the Grey Zone.
The results of the navy escalation of nice energy competitors will be extreme, and nice powers will go to nice lengths to keep away from direct battle, given the potential for devastating losses. The truth is that this shadowy grey zone has turn into an area of accelerating exercise by U.S. adversaries.
What’s the Grey Zone?
The grey zone is the geopolitical house between peace and struggle the place nations conduct actions to advance their nationwide pursuits and weaken their adversaries with out triggering a navy response. Grey zone actions might also set the circumstances for a future struggle however stay under a threshold that will provoke an instantaneous navy response.
Because the U.S. and its allies search to take care of the world order that has been in place since WWII, Russia and China, usually working collectively (and supported by nefarious actors resembling Iran and North Korea) have sought to decrease the affect and standing of the U.S. in favor of their very own ascent and their authoritarian views.
The grey zone isn’t only one facet of nice energy competitors—it’s shortly changing into the dominant house the place that competitors performs out. Grey zone exercise is growing as a result of nice energy competitors is intensifying.
The Grey Zone Provides Distinctive Alternatives
Nations usually want deniability to ensure that grey zone actions to achieve success, even when solely a fig-leaf of deniability in some instances. Grey zone actions can span the spectrum of attribution from attributable (overt) to unattributable (covert), or misattributable (false flag).
Advances in expertise, notably in AI, and evolving warfare techniques like those we’re observing in actual time in Ukraine, (advances in drone expertise, for instance) are offering new capabilities to nations which have the flexibility to ‘degree the enjoying area’ in some methods.
AI can be bolstering each the attain and influence of cognitive warfare techniques, offering new strategies of persuasion, coercion, and manipulation. And since international locations need to keep away from a pricey struggle, there’s a excessive threshold, in addition to common uncertainty, on how to answer grey zone actions.
Utilizing these benefits, smaller international locations, like Iran and North Korea, can as we speak try and make strategic features towards the U.S. and the West, both alone or in alliance with Russia or China, that will be unachievable in a standard struggle. The grey zone supplies choices to nations that in any other case could have none.
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There are just a few further concerns for really understanding grey zone operations.
First, figuring out what’s grey zone exercise versus regular statecraft will be troublesome and complicated given the often-tense relations between nations. A few of what we think about as operations within the grey zone could merely be harsh diplomacy. There’s room for debate there, however we should always keep away from the urge to label each aggressive motion our adversaries take as being ‘within the grey zone’.
There may be additionally some thought that adversary actions need to be covert or ambiguous to be thought of grey zone actions. That most likely aligned nicely in the course of the Chilly Conflict, however perhaps much less so as we speak.
Some grey zone actions require various ranges of ambiguity or covertness, however not all. Some grey zone exercise is supposed to have an viewers, resembling China’s aggressive grey zone actions within the South China Sea.
What widespread methods or techniques do our adversaries make use of?
There are a number of techniques utilized by our adversaries that make deterrence and successfully responding to grey zone actions more difficult.
The primary, “salami techniques”, speaks to using small, incremental encroachments or actions that don’t benefit a response, however which might be usually adopted by related small encroachments or actions that in sum, change the established order over time. It’s arduous for nations to understand how to answer this strategy.
The second, “fait accompli” refers to bolder actions which might be taken shortly with the calculation {that a} navy response can be too escalatory or dangerous.
Russia doubtless calculated that its plan in 2022 to shortly decapitate Ukrainian management and take the nation in a matter of days—together with some saber rattling and threats—would have made the takeover of Ukraine a fait accompli that was too dangerous for U.S. and NATO intervention.
In contrast to in 2014 in Crimea, that technique by Moscow failed in 2022.
One key attribute of grey zone actions is that the concern of the results of twenty first century battle, and notably battle that may attract international locations with highly effective militaries, restrains responses to grey zone exercise.
Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea watch U.S. responses intently, and an absence of response or inconsistent responses, encourages further grey zone motion.
Are we already in a ‘Grey Conflict’ with China and Russia?
Given the rising depth and systematic use of grey zone actions by U.S. adversaries, it’s price contemplating whether or not we at the moment are in a “Grey Conflict” with China and Russia. And is that Grey Conflict being supported by assist from Iran and North Korea?
Contemplate {that a} Grey Conflict would happen totally within the grey zone and can be nicely past the periodic use of grey zone actions by our adversaries to steadily erode U.S energy and affect.
A grey struggle may very well be outlined because the systematic and coordinated use of grey zone actions by our adversaries to attain the identical strategic outcomes as a standard struggle, with out the dangers of direct battle.
The query now could be whether or not China believes that it may possibly strategically defeat the U.S. – utilizing Russia as a major surrogate – in order that it may possibly take Taiwan and set up itself because the dominant world superpower with out direct superpower battle.
As a substitute of China utilizing the grey zone to steadily weaken the U.S. and to assist set the circumstances for a future struggle, the brand new actuality is that the grey zone could now be the place the place the subsequent struggle is already being fought.
That is half considered one of a 3-part collection by Cipher Transient Skilled and former Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia Dave Pitts, who additionally serves as a member of The Cipher Transient’s new Grey Zone Group.
Learn the subsequent installment of Pitts’ Grey Zone collection subsequent Wednesday solely in The Cipher Transient. And be a part of Pitts and different Cipher Transient Consultants in a collection of stay conversations occurring in 2025 led by former Undersecretary of Protection for Intelligence Dr. Michael Vickers.
Subscriber+ Members, verify your electronic mail for an unique invitation to register for the primary session on Wednesday, January 22 at 1:30p ET. Not a member? We are able to assist with that.
Learn extra expert-driven nationwide safety insights, perspective and evaluation in The Cipher Transient as a result of Nationwide Safety is Everybody’s Enterprise.
