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The Myth of a Rules-Based World

Kirkhill

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No comment other than I find no fault.

The Continuing Competitive Age.

 
No comment other than I find no fault.

The Continuing Competitive Age.

Rules-based International Order is the colloquialism that I see most often, so a blending of the two.
 
“Total war and perfect peace rarely exist in practice. Instead, they are extremes between which exist the relations among most political groups. This range includes routine economic competition, more or less permanent political or ideological tension, and occasional crises among groups.” — Warfighting, MCDP 1


Hobbes would definitely agree. I suspect Smith would as well.

Competition is. Conflict is. How are they managed?


2.3 COMPETITION CONTINUUM

Competition is a fundament aspect of international relations. As states and nonstate actors seek to protect and advance their own interests, they continually compete for advantage. States typically use all instruments of national power to advance their interests. They leverage these to develop competitive advantages to help them pursue their goals even when they conflict with the goals of another political actor. These “advantages” are relative to a competitor, when one actor is able to do something better than its rival or rivals.

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has reconceptualized strategic competition. Competition Continuum, Joint Doctrine Note 1-19, posits that, rather than a world either at peace or at war, there is “a world of enduring competition conducted through a mixture of cooperation, competition below armed conflict, and armed conflict.”16 It espouses the idea of “integrated campaigning,” which requires the “skillful combination of cooperation, competition below armed conflict, and, when appropriate, armed conflict integrating with diplomatic, informational, military, and
economic efforts to achieve and sustain strategic objectives” over extended timeframes. The integration of these elements of power takes places throughout the continuum.

In competition, the military is employed in coordination with the other elements of national power to either attract or coerce. Attraction makes use of incentives to induce another political actor to take favorable action. Military cooperation with allies and partners is one component of an attraction approach. Coercion seeks to compel a rival to take favorable action (or to stop taking action that is not favorable) or to deter a rival from taking action in the first place. For both compellence and deterrence, the goal is to use the threat of military force to achieve the desired outcome. Note that competitive advantage does not necessarily equal military superiority. A competitor’s strength of will, along with the nonmilitary tools of policy, are part of the equation too.17

Competition takes place on both sides of the violence threshold. The threat of violence and violent acts themselves are competitive tools in international relations. The two models in figure 2-2 below depict two views of the competition continuum and its relationship to the violence threshold. The linear model on the left illustrates how various approaches to competition use the threat of violence to help achieve their goals. The circular model on the right shows how negotiations and deterrence can reset a competition below the violence threshold. It also shows that conflict sets the conditions for the type of competition that will follow it.18

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Within the aspect of cooperation, we undertake activities within EABO as a cooperative effort with like-minded nations during pre-conflict competition as a means of gaining and maintaining access, developing/enhancing allies’ and partners’ capabilities, countering malign behavior, and deterring regional aggression. The most common applications of EABO in this context involve contributing to regional surveillance to inform and support diplomatic, informational, military, and economic counteraction to violations of international norms. Cooperative activities may also include increasing familiarity with potential operating areas, collaborating in development and fielding of common equipment and materiel solutions, improving infrastructure, and conducting exercises that enhance collective warfighting capabilities and promote deterrence.

In the event of conflict, naval forces conduct EABO to augment, enhance, or assist partner nations in defending sovereignty, control key maritime terrain, contest fait accompli gambits,19 deny enemy freedom of action, impose costs, and shape the operational environment in support of integrated sea control and maritime power-projection operations. During the latter, forces conducting EABO accept risk relative to decisive naval maneuver by major fleet units to accomplish important tasks inside the WEZ in support of the overall fleet concept of operations. As we see in the circular model above, the outcome of conflict sets the conditions for a return to competition below the violence threshold.

Taken from the "Tentative Manual For Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations"


Very much in sync with Global Britain and its reliance on the RN and the RM Commandos, the Army's Special Ops Bde (supporting and accompanying Non-Governmental Forces) and Security Force Assistance Bde (assisting Government Forces) as well as its existing Special Forces, Intelligence and Diplomatic assets.

Recognition of the undeclared wars fought since 1945 and which continue to this day and the international conflict that operates below the threshold of violence, much less that of total war.

Is Canada prepared for the "Hybrid Wars" of the "Gray Zone"?

Is Canada prepared for Diplomatic conflict?

I don't believe it understands the nature of the field it is playing on much less the rules of the game and how it is going to play it.

The British view of the playing field


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