Hybrid Warfare
Our current World Contingency Operation diverges from previous conflicts as hybrid warfare has become the basis for objectives in modern wars. This includes delegating objectives, relying on joint strategy and operations. To develop this standard, the U.S. Military created the Joint Doctrine, guiding various branches of the military[1] “toward a common objective,” (JCS). Military Operations have become strategically executed by the Executive Branch, rather than requesting a formal declaration of war from Congress. These military operations hold questionable motives, as the Executive Branch bases these efforts on their own terms, apart from civilian and Congressional opinion.
While jointness has always been a factor of American warfare, the Joint Doctrine has become ubiquitous in all modern military operations. As noted by the Fall 1996 Airpower Journal, the military transition to jointness first[2] “occurred during the Bush administration.” The journal adds that “[u]nder the leadership of the Pentagon team of Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and General Powell, an unclassified, joint national military strategy was published in 1991—probably the first in the Republic’s history,” (Mil)
Operation Olympic Games was executed in 2010 and utilized cyberspace to inflict physical damage, the first known use in our American military which featured a joint-operational attack of its nature. As Historian Robert F. Ritchie notes[3], “Operation Olympic Games in 2010 saw the first use of a cyber-weapon that used the cyber space to produce actual direct physical damage. A ‘worm’ crawled globally through the world’s computer systems and focused on Iran,” (Ritchie, R.F. 2021, 209). Has acts like these become our modern [unconstitutional] declaration of war, in an effort to prevent an upset in geopolitical alliances? Rather than rely on attacks using infantry, cavalry, or warplanes, the assault weapons that have been constructed by American forces have evolved. In many ways, cyber-attacks correlate to the ‘total war tactics’ implemented by American colonists, which included “food fights,” and other assaults on opposing military infrastructure, instead of directly attacking units (Ritchie, R.F. 2021. ix). Could these same attacks today be considered an abuse of human rights? If so, are cyberattacks that upset digital infrastructure more humane? The intention of the original colonist’s total war tactics was to weaken the opposing troops’ morale by indirectly attacking and sabotaging the essential items needed by their unit. Since their first operation, Cyber attacks now pose that same moral question. Hybrid warfare, combined with a lack of formal declaration paves the way for even more ambiguous strategy and further revisions of the definition of “victory.” In the same respect, even the term for the Global War on Terror itself was changed to more accurately reflect our repositioned objective, a world contingency operation. It was through the use of hybrid warfare that our military made the full transformation from a reactive military to an increasingly proactive military that attempts to suppress threats before they get out of hand. With the change from formal declarations to individual operations comes new questions and concerns. Can ‘overproactivity’ invert itself to resemble the same threat which it was created to be prevent?
Iraq and Afghanistan were influenced by a multi-branch approach utilizing jointness, or hybrid warfare, diverging from traditional American Ways of Fighting (AWoF) and war. Using MQ-1s and similar drones, the United States Military has been able to launch coordinated attacks from the comfort of their office. The School of Advanced Military Studies United States Army Command and General Staff College states that[4], “The Armed Forces of the United States have reached the point in the evolution of warfare where most operations are joint in nature.” This statement reveals the shift in our American Way of Fighting (AWoF) which has now become the consistent expectation of engaging in global warfare. All branches of our military are overseen and subject to intervention by Executive Branch intelligence operations like those who launched Operation El Dorado Canyon of 1986 and Operation Odyssey Dawn in 2011 against Moammar Gaddafi.
Conclusion
Our current World Contingency Operation includes new objectives executed not by the Legislative Branch but instead by the Executive Branch. These wars manifest themselves as Special Military Operations and often remain undisclosed to the public. The object of jointness remains a debatable issue, however it has given the U.S. military the upper hand in the global participation of counterterrorism. It was the response and policies enacted and maintained by the Bush administration, Dick Cheney, General Powell, and those under the leadership of the Pentagon which shaped the microevolution to our current American Way of Fighting (AWoF). Operation Olympic in 2010 changed our way of warfare forever, and likely the geopolitical relations between the U.S. and Iran. Hybrid warfare and cyber-attacks have inherently changed the means to achieving a military victory. Will future technology continue to shape our engagement and contribution to assist nations at war?
[1] Jcs. "Joint Doctrine Publications." Jcs. Accessed March 8th, 2023. https://www.jcs.mil/Doctrine/Joint-Doctine-Pubs/.
[2] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA529837.pdf
[3] Ritchie, Robert F. 2021. Modern American Military History. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing.
[4] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA381867.pdf