Irregular Warfare: Undermining the CCP’s Dangerous and Illegal Activities in the Indo-Pacific
by Dr. Lumpy Lumbaca
To address the dangerous and illegal actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Indo-Pacific, the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) requires a comprehensive Irregular Warfare (IW) campaign strategy. The word “campaign” is used since this is an enduring effort that requires constant assessment and refinement to ensure effectiveness. The first part of this paper outlines strategic focus areas that the IW campaign should be built upon. The second part of this paper describes specific lines of effort that may be used as building blocks toward strategic success. The emphasis on the second part of the paper is to inspire new, creative thinking toward undermining CCP malign activity. This paper is activity-focused rather than an academic or theoretical study. Furthermore, the actions suggested here are bold, risky, and will unsettle some military and civilian leaders. To be clear, this is not to suggest that the US and its partners do anything illegal, unethical, or contrary to international law. Instead, the objective is to think “out of the box” and take calculated risks. If deemed impossible or too risky, the alternative to this strategy is to keep doing what we are doing now with minor variations - falsely advertised as innovation - a path that has yet to significantly deter or diminish China’s dangerous and illegal behavior throughout the region. This strategy is no way intended to destabilize China or the lives of the Chinese people. This campaign is specifically designed to undermine malign, dangerous, and illegal CCP authoritarian activities as well as the individuals and networks that enable them.
First, a note on definitions. While the argument over definitions and terminology in this space knows no bounds, and this paper will surely not rectify the matter, two definitions are necessary as the foundation for the IW strategy that follows. First is the concept of Political Warfare. As defined by George Kennan, Political Warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation's command, short of war, used to achieve national objectives. Kennan posited that it ranges 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. For clarity, the author of this article will add that an important difference between Political Warfare and traditional statecraft is that the former is executed with some level of hostile – not necessarily violent - intent. The second definition required for this strategy paper is that of Irregular Warfare itself. Simply put, Irregular Warfare is the military’s contribution to Political Warfare. It is centered on military efforts to support an actors’ Political Warfare objectives of influencing populations (toward the actor and away from the adversary) and affecting legitimacy (in favor of the actor and against the adversary). Irregular Warfare requires deep understanding of human dynamics and creative thinking toward solving problems. With Political Warfare and Irregular Warfare defined, the remainder of this paper will focus solely on the US military’s Irregular Warfare strategy in the Indo-Pacific while acknowledging that any such strategy must complement traditional/conventional military initiatives as well as overarching, whole-of-government and whole-of-society Political Warfare objectives.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/irregular-warfare-undermining-ccps-dangerous-and-illegal-activities-indo-pacific
