The Tech Revolution and Irregular Warfare: Leveraging Commercial Innovation for Great Power Competition

Excerpt:  “The U.S. government has not adequately leveraged the commercial sector to conduct irregular warfare against China, Russia, Iran, and other competitors because of significant risk aversion, slow and burdensome contracting and acquisitions processes, and a failure to adequately understand technological advances. There is an urgent need to rethink how the United States works with the commercial sector in such areas as battlefield awareness, placement and access, next-generation intelligence, unmanned and autonomous systems, influence operations, and precision effects. … This analysis focuses on one specific area of competition: actions and capabilities below the threshold of conventional warfare, or what this analysis refers to as irregular warfare. As used here, irregular warfare refers to activities short of conventional and nuclear warfare that are designed to expand a country’s influence and legitimacy. These activities include information operations, cyber operations, support to state and non-state partners, covert action, and economic coercion.”