Nov. 15, 2021
China and Russia Are Waging Irregular Warfare Against the United States: It is Time for a U.S. Global Response, Led by Special Operations Command
America’s adversaries already are fighting a sophisticated, enduring, low-intensity war against the United States and its allies. China and Russia’s ongoing campaigns demand the United States restructure its agencies, strategies, policies, and resources to better employ irregular warfare (IW) and meet the challenge. The U.S. government’s current approach to strategic competition is problematic, but there are military, technological, interagency, and combined approaches that would enable the nation to stay ahead of its adversaries and keep competition from escalating to kinetic warfare. Fortunately, the Department of Defense has a large, capable organization, with forces deployed around the world, that can employ IW to prevail in great power competition (GPC): U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF).