84-605 The Future of Warfare

Warfare is constantly evolving. Long gone are the days of set-piece battles involving conventional military forces. In the contemporary conflict environment, hybrid actors and proxy groups wage war in an asymmetric and irregular manner, relying on ambiguity, strategic surprise and deception to accomplish their objectives. This course will examine new trends in warfare, from the onset of cyber war to the development of violent non-state actors with conventional military capabilities. Moreover, this course will explore the concept of the "gray zone," an area of neither declared nor undeclared hostilities where U.S. adversaries like Russia, China, Iran and others are gradually allocating resources. Case studies examined in this course will include Russian hybrid warfare in Crimea and Ukraine, Chinese cyberwarfare and information operations, Iranian sponsorship of proxy militias in Syria and Lebanon and a range of other emerging trends in areas such as technology, demographics, urbanization and social media, all of which are combining to radically alter the way wars are fought today.