Strategies for Modernizing Military Approaches: Prioritizing Irregular Warfare

Strategies for Modernizing Military Approaches: Prioritizing Irregular Warfare

The United States military has adapted its stance on hybrid warfare and gray zone conflicts, adopting an integrated, adaptive approach that addresses persistent coercion, technological disruption, and alliance cooperation to maintain strategic deterrence. This shift comes in response to adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, who employ hybrid strategies combining military, cyber, informational, and economic tools to challenge U.S. influence without triggering full-scale war.

Recognizing the escalating use of hybrid tactics, the U.S. Army War College has highlighted that by 2035, adversaries will intensify their use of such tactics involving situational cooperation and coercive actions below armed conflict thresholds. These hybrid threats pose a significant risk to traditional deterrence, necessitating integrated responses across diplomatic, informational, military, and economic domains.

Emphasis is also placed on joint and allied integration. The June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict reaffirmed the critical importance of alliance solidarity, interoperability, and joint planning. This includes rapid U.S. deployment of missile defense systems to support regional partners, reflecting the broader U.S. doctrine's prioritization of combined capabilities to confront hybrid threats effectively.

Innovation and rapid adaptation are key elements of this new approach. Recent doctrinal discussions stress the need for top-down innovation and integration of disruptive technologies, such as cyber, space, and electronic warfare, to maintain strategic advantage against hybrid warfare tactics. The U.S. military aims to shorten "kill chains," improve situational awareness, and counteract adversary reconnaissance-strike complexes through continuous technological and doctrinal evolution.

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy have made progress in detailing a more comprehensive approach to conflict, integrating multi-domain capabilities including cyber, space, and missile defense. Critical components to counter hybrid threats involve multi-layered defense systems, including space-based sensors and interceptors.

However, it's worth noting that these adversarial approaches are absent from the current joint doctrinal framework, including the joint doctrine note on strategic competition (JDN 1-22). Adopting this framework would provide a full spectrum of conflict design, helping to integrate ends, ways, and means into a coherent campaign plan.

This shift in U.S. strategy better enables understanding of the activities of the United States' most important competitors. Dr. Robert S. Burrell, an award-winning military historian and interdisciplinary studies teacher at Joint Special Operations University, emphasizes the importance of this holistic approach.

Image credit for this article is provided by Roxana Davidovits from the Romanian Ministry of National Defence (via SOCEUR). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.

For those interested in learning more about irregular warfare, visit the Irregular Warfare Initiative's new online home at irregularwarfare.org.

1. The integrated and adaptive approach of the United States military aims to counter hybrid warfare tactics employed by nations like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, which involve a blend of military, cyber, informational, and economic tools.
2. To maintain strategic deterrence, the U.S. Army War College anticipates adversaries intensifying their use of hybrid tactics, including situational cooperation and coercive actions below armed conflict thresholds, by 2035.
3. Recognizing the significance of alliance solidarity, interoperability, and joint planning, the June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict reaffirmed the importance of integrated responses across diplomatic, informational, military, and economic domains.
4. Innovation, rapid adaptation, and the integration of disruptive technologies such as cyber, space, and electronic warfare are key elements in the new U.S. approach to hybrid warfare, with the aim to shorten "kill chains," improve situational awareness, and counteract adversary reconnaissance-strike complexes.
5. Adopting a more comprehensive approach to conflict, as detailed in the 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, involves integrating multi-domain capabilities including cyber, space, and missile defense, with critical components including multi-layered defense systems, such as space-based sensors and interceptors.

Read also: