Unrestricted Warfare
Encyclopedia
Military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
written in 1999 by two colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
s in the People's Liberation Army
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
, Qiao Liang
Qiao Liang
Qiao Liang, senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, is the co-author of the book Unrestricted Warfare....
(乔良) and Wang Xiangsui
Wang Xiangsui
Wang Xiangsui is a senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. He is co-author of Unrestricted Warfare. Unrestricted warfare dictates that no country is capable of defeating a superpower such as the United States on its own terms, but outlines that such superpowers could be weakened through...
(王湘穗). Its primary concern is how a nation such as China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
can defeat a technologically superior opponent (such as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) through a variety of means. Rather than focusing on direct military confrontation, this book instead examines a variety of other means. Such means include using International Law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
(see Lawfare
Lawfare
Lawfare is a recently coined word not yet appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary, a portmanteau of the words 'law' and 'warfare', said to describe a form of asymmetric warfare...
) and a variety of economic means to place one's opponent in a bad position and circumvent the need for direct military action.
Source of text
The English translation of the book was made available by the Foreign Broadcast Information ServiceForeign Broadcast Information Service
Foreign Broadcast Information Service was an open source intelligence component of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. It monitored, translated, and disseminated within the U.S. government openly available news and information from media sources outside the...
on the internet in 1999. Reportedly, the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
wrote to the authors to ask for permission to use this book. The book was then published in English by a previously unknown Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
nian publisher, with the subtitle "China's Master Plan to Destroy America" and a picture of the burning World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
on the cover. These additions were thought to be misinterpretations of the text, not intended by the original authors. A French translation was published in 2003.
The text has been cited by the U.S. government, e.g. on a military website by James Perry who states:
In February 1999, the PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House issued Unrestricted Warfare, a book written by two PLA air force political officers, Senior Col Qiao Liang and Senior Col Wang Xiangsui. The venue for publication and the laudatory reviews of the book in official publications suggested that Unrestricted Warfare enjoyed the support of some elements of the PLA leadership. The Western press quoted various sensational passages from the book and described it in terms that verged on hyperbole.
The book was not a blueprint for a “dirty war” against the West but a call for innovative thinking on future warfare.
Weaknesses of the United States
The book argues that the primary weakness of the United States in military matters is that the US views revolution in military thought solely in terms of technology. The book further argues that to the US, military doctrine evolves because new technology allows new capabilities. As such, the book argues that the United States does not consider the wider picture of military strategy, which includes legal and economic factors. The book proceeds to argue that the United States is vulnerable to attack along these lines.Alternative methods of attack
Reducing one's opponent, the book notes, can be accomplished in a number of ways other than direct military confrontation. The book notes that these alternative methods "have the same and even greater destructive force than military warfare, and they have already produced serious threats different from the past and in many directions for...national security."Lawfare
LawfareLawfare
Lawfare is a recently coined word not yet appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary, a portmanteau of the words 'law' and 'warfare', said to describe a form of asymmetric warfare...
, or political action through transnational or non-governmental organizations can effect a policy change that would be impossible otherwise. Because of the international nature of the modern world and activism, it is much easier for nation-states to affect policy in other nation-states through a proxy.
Economic warfare
Owing to the interconnected nature of global economics, nations can inflict grievous harm on the economies of other nations without taking any offensive action.Network warfare
- see iWarIWariWar is the term used by NATO to describe a form of Internet-based warfare.-iWar comparisons:iWar is distinct from cyber-warfare, cyber-terrorism and information warfare. These refer to sensitive military and critical infrastructure assets, and to battlefield communications and satellite intelligence...
One of the better-known alternatives in this book is the idea of attacking networks
Cyber-warfare
Cyberwarfare refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare although this analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation.Government security expert...
. Networks are increasingly important in not only data exchange but also transportation, financial institutions, and communication. Attacks that disable networks can easily hamstring large areas of life that are dependent on them for coordination. One example of network warfare would be shutting down a network that supplies power. If there is a significant failure in the power grid caused by the attack, massive power outages could result, crippling industry, defense, medicine, and all other areas of life.
Terrorism
Another famous instance of Unrestricted Warfare policy is terrorismTerrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
. Terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
is used by a group to gain satisfaction for certain demands. Even if these demands are not satisfied, a terrorist attack can have vastly disproportionate effects on national welfare. One only has to look at the economic crisis that followed the terrorist attacks against the United States, or the extensive security measures put in place after those same attacks. Terrorism erodes a nation's sense of security and well being, even if the direct effects of the attacks only concern a minute percentage of the population.
Defense against unrestricted warfare
The authors note that an old-fashioned mentality that considers military action the only offensive action is inadequate given the new range of threats. Instead, the authors advocate forming a "composite force in all aspects related to national interest. Moreover, given this type of composite force, it is also necessary to have this type of composite force to become the means which can be utilized for actual operations. This should be a "grand warfare method" which combines all of the dimensions and methods in the two major areas of military and non-military affairs so as to carry out warfare. This is opposite of the formula for warfare methods brought forth in past wars."Implications
As the authors state, the new range of options combined with the rising cost (both political and financial) of waging traditional warfare results in the rising dominance of the new alternatives to traditional military action. A state that does not heed these warnings is in dire shape.In popular culture
The novels Foreign Influence and Full Black by Brad Thor are based on this book.External links
- Selections from Unrestricted Warfare
- Modern warfare – the battle for public opinion in .pdf Format - article (31 July 2006)
- Unrestricted Warfare Symposium - annual Johns Hopkins University symposium with proceedings
- http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/449-corn.pdf - Tony Corn, Peaceful Rise through Unrestricted Warfare: Grand Strategy with Chinese Characteristics, Small Wars Journal, June 2010.