The Hegemony Handbook: Exploiting the Space between War and Peace

Abstract : We examine the implications of Anti-Access and Area Denial systems, sub-threshold actions, and information campaigns when they are part of a mutually supporting strategy. We assess that, when used in concert, they can undermine peacetime American military power by increasing the political costs for us and our allies. This strategy degrades our alliances. Our conventional deterrence- while important for preventing war- is not designed to address this issue. We propose that the military needs to identify ways, short of war, of producing effects in the political dimension. This will provide the National Command Authority with leverage to hold our adversaries' political standing at risk, which can be used to strike private agreements that require our adversaries to follow international norms.