Grey Zone Conflict Essay

Gray-zone conflicts currently present the most significant security threat confronting U.S. strategists and planners. Recent events by Russia in the Ukraine and China in the South China Sea are current examples of these gray-zone threats. Applying components from two international relations (IR) theories to gray-zone conflicts will create a framework for U.S. strategists. Using components of realism and liberalism and combining them will provide the U.S. a policy instrument with both hard and soft power to deal with these styles of conflicts. Consequently, a third IR theory constructivism offers very little to U.S. planners to help them with a strategy for gray-zone conflicts. As some scholars suggest, constructivism is a theory of culture and cannot function or substitute as a theory of politics. Components of the Truman Doctrine applied during the Cold War can benefit U.S. planners with recent gray-zone conflicts. Nevertheless, using elements of contain and deter along with diplomacy and foreign aid would allow progress in recent gray-zone conflicts with both China and Russia.

Currently, gray-zone conflicts pose the greatest significant security issue confronting U.S. policymakers. Gray zone …show more content…
One, that political order comes from a common shared understanding, emphasizing the need for communications across cultures regarding the rules of the world. Then that order needs to come from an established international constitutional system . Some schools of thought suggest that constructivism is a theory of culture which cannot be substituted for a theory of politics. Because of these thoughts some scholars have decided that it is an approach and not a theory . Constructivism is not a theory of power or diplomacy like the other two, however if deals with ideas and values. Because of this, it will not be effective in helping policy makers plan for gray-zone