Modern Political Warfare: Current Practices and Possible Responses
“Modern Political Warfare: Current Practices and Possible Responses”
Speaker: Robinson, L. (RAND)
Date: 15 May 2019
Speaker Session Preview
SMA hosted a speaker session presented by Ms. Linda Robinson (RAND) as a part of its Future of Global Competition & Conflict Speaker Series. Ms. Robinson focused her presentation on a recent RAND report that examined the practice of political warfare during the Cold War (using George Kennan’s definition as a basis) and similar types of activities today. She first outlined Kennan’s definition of political warfare and then explained how her work applied additional rigor to this definition. She spoke about the continuum of conflict and stated that the World War II mental model based on physical violence inhibits our thinking. Ms. Robinson stressed that it is time to break away from this model, especially because China already has. Next, she spoke about modern political warfare and used Russia, Iran, and ISIS as case studies. After discussing each case study in depth, she identified the key attributes of modern political warfare derived from the case studies. Ms. Robinson then identified the difficulties of detection and warning when it comes to unconventional warfare, due to the ambiguity and deception involved. She stated that RAND’s Analytic System (ACTIV) tracks adversary activity and country vulnerability in order to better prevent and prepare for impending unconventional warfare tactics. Ms. Robinson also provided several response requirements for the Department of Defense and Interagency, including: 1) the recognition of modern political warfare as a form of warfare; 2) the creation of a proactive strategy and an architecture for integrated response; 3) the identification of vulnerabilities in order to build up resilience, detect, defend, and deter; and 4) the repair of gaps in US information practices and capabilities. To conclude, Ms. Robinson offered a few specific recommendations for Special Operations Forces (SOF).
Linda Robinson Bio
Linda Robinson is a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation and award-winning book author. Modern Political Warfare: Current Practices and Possible Responses, was the 9th most downloaded RAND report of 2018. She assisted the DoD preparation of the Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy. Her current research spans irregular warfare, terrorism and post-conflict stabilization. Before joining RAND in 2006, Robinson held fellowships at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Wilson Center, IISS, and John Hopkins SAIS. Robinson graduated summa cum laude from Swarthmore College and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She received the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for her tenure as chair of the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors and numerous awards during her journalism career, including the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defense and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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