How to think about ‘gray zone wars’? Critical discussion of the article by Antulio J. Echevarria II

The question of the so-called ‘gray-zone’ or ‘hybrid’ wars has come to prominence in the recent years referring to conflicts wherein the level of violence (often fully absent) falls below the threshold of legal frameworks justifying formal military response. Examples are Russia’s actions in Ukraine and partly Syria and China’s actions regarding disputed territories in the South China Sea. Both are exploiting the zone of ‘ambiguity’ to achieve defacto ‘military’ or strategic objectives by non-military means outside of the range of ‘response options’ envisioned by ‘conventional’ strategic thinking. This article explores the challenges of strategic thinking about these ‘grayzone’ and ‘ambiguous’ conflicts seen as part of the broader challenge of thinking about asymmetric war. It addresses the problems of strategic, legal and conceptual enframing of these situations and provides a critical discussion of the existent conceptual tools and apparatuses.