Conflicts short of war


 * "Power concedes nothing without a demand… it never did, and it never will. Find out just what the people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.…" --Frederick Douglass, August 4, 1857.

Conflicts short of war are also known as "low intensity conflicts" (LIC), which the Wikipedia defines as "the use of military force applied selectively and with restraint to enforce compliance with the policies or objectives of the political body controlling the military force."

"Conflicts short of war include counterterrorism, some counternarcotics operations, strikes and raids, support for insurgencies, and counterinsurgency (guerrilla) operations." 

Military Definition
"The US military has jointly defined LIC as political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below conventional war and above the routine, peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies. Low intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of armed force. It is waged by a combination of means employing political, economic, informational, and military instruments. Low intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in the Third World, but contain regional and global security implications." 

Special Forces
"Congress, as a part of the Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act of 1986, directed the DOD to provide an appropriate force structure for simultaneously addressing conventional conflict and conflicts short of war. As a result of this legislation, the joint US Special Operations Command (USSOC) was created." 

Evolution of Military Doctrine
"A projection published in the January '96 professional journal of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C. sheds even more light on this ominous evolution of military doctrine. In the scenario, the ongoing 'revolution of military affairs' (RMA) will lead to a 21st century police state capable of using 'bioelectronics', 'psychotechnology' and chemical tranquilizers to fight conflicts short of war and subdue restive populations - including Americans. The U.S. adopted a strategy of 'dynamic defense', a use of 'computer-controlled perception-moulding systems' and other forms of mind control. 'The old Cold War structures - Department of Defense, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency', etc., were replaced by two organizations called 'The Conflict Preemption Agency' and the 'Conflict Containment Agency'. The latter agency 'integrated the military [and] civilian law enforcement' and intelligence agencies. 'The organizational division between the military and law-enforcement was abolished.'" (Source: The New American magazine April 29, 1996).

SourceWatch Resources

 * Army After Next
 * avian flu pandemic
 * Bush Administration Plan for Flu Outbreaks
 * Directed Energy Weapons
 * enemy combatant
 * emerging threat
 * environmental warfare
 * Establishing martial law in the United States
 * fourth-generation warfare
 * Hurricane Katrina: Police State Occupation of New Orleans
 * Iraq as an imminent threat
 * Iraqi insurgency
 * Joint Vision 2010 (1996)
 * Joint Vision 2020 (2000)
 * Minuteman Project: "Armed Rednecks at the Border"
 * national security
 * National Security Act of 1947
 * National Security State
 * Office of Net Assessment
 * Office of Strategic Services
 * Operation Garden Plot
 * Patriot Act I
 * peacekeeping
 * police state
 * Posse Comitatus Act
 * Proactive Preemptive Operations Group
 * psychological warfare
 * SARS
 * State of national emergency
 * U.S. Northern Command

Publications

 * Chung Min Lee, "Crises and Conflicts Short of War: The Case of the Korean Peninsula," The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis 7, no. 1 (Summer 1996): 31-53.
 * John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt (eds.), "Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy," RAND Corporation, ISBN 0-8330-3030-2, 2001. Free downloadable pdf.
 * John T. Fishel, ed., "Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement," Center for the Hemispheric Defense Studies, National Defense University. ISSN Print 0966-2847 / ISSN Online 1744-0556.e-journal subscription (sample links provided).

Documents

 * New Release: President Orders Ready Reserves of Armed Forces to Active Duty. Executive Order Ordering the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty And Delegating Certain Authorities to the Secretary of Defense And the Secretary of Transportation, September 14, 2001.
 * News Release: President Signs Authorization for Use of Military Force bill, Senate Joint Resolution 23, the "Authorization for Use of Military Force," September 18, 2001.
 * News Release: President Issues Military Order. Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism, November 13, 2001.

Research Resources

 * Low-Intensity Conflict. SNCOA Library Bibliography. Compiled by SNCOA Library Staff, Air University Library, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, August 2000. Includes books, documents, and periodicals.