“Gray Zone Activities in Great Power Competition,” a virtual workshop hosted by the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies on March 8-11, 2021, featured a variety of distinguished US and Partner-Nation panelists from government, academia, think-tanks, non-governmental organizations, and private industry to discuss whole-of-society matters that influence populations and affect legitimacy in the era of Great Power Competition.  Topics include social media and big data influences, political warfare, China’s military modernization as it applies to gray zone activities, the recently released US Defense Department’s Irregular Warfare (IW) Annex, security cooperation and partner engagements in areas short of conflict, and other subjects of strategic interest

Videos from this workshop are now available on DKI APCSS’ YouTube Channel.

Speakers for this event included are listed below

Day 1

“Institutionalizing Irregular Warfare across Defense and Whole of Government”
Daniel “Deak” Roh, Acting Principal Director Special Operations & Combatting Terrorism, Office of the Secretary of Defense (Policy)

“DOD’s Contribution to Political Warfare in the age of Great Power Competition”
David S. Maxwell, Colonel, US Army Special Forces (Ret.), Foundation for Defense of Democracies

“Military Equities in Below Threshold Conflict Across the DIME”  (video not available)
Ms. Raquel Garbers, Director General Strategic Defence Policy, ADM Pol, Canadian Department of National Defense

Day 2

“Civil Society and Human Security in Grey Zones: Possibilities and Lessons”
Dr. Lisa Schirch, Senior Research Fellow for the Toda Peace Institute, the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

“Social media, influence, and the importance of being able to exploit big data in Great Power Competition”
Doowan Lee, Strategic Advisor to the Institute for Security and Technology and Adjunct Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco

Day 3

“Irregular War and China’s First Military Modernization: The Qing Confronts the West.”
Dr. Tommy Jamison, Assistant Professor, Naval Postgraduate School

“Gray Zone Economics”
Dr. Lori Forman, DKI APCSS Professor and Development Advisor
Dr Tim Buehrer, DKI APCSS Professor
Dr. Srini Sitaraman, DKI APCSS Professor

Day 4

“Irregular Warfare and Integration into a Competition Campaign at the the Combatant Command-Level”
Andreas Helchinger, Commander, US Navy, US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM)
and
Mr. Joel Johnson, Counter-Terrorism Plans Manager, US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) J35

The Strategic Threat in the Indo-Pacific, and the Challenges and Opportunties
Mr. William (Bill) Moore US Special Operations Command – Pacific (SOCPAC)

“IW to do what, why and how”
Mr. Robert C. Jones, US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

The event was moderated by Professor J. “Lump” Lumbaca, an associate professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.