Conflict continuum

By the decade of the 2010s, military planners realized that additional capabilities in communications, sensors, and weapons countermeasures made it possible for competitors to react to a contestant's moves in the "gray zone" just short of conflict.

[6] In 2018, Kelly McCoy identified a continuum within competition itself,[7] as explored in the United States Joint Staff's Joint Concept for Integrated Campaigning (JCIC), up to the point just short of armed conflict, while noting Perkins' connection to deterrence in the continuum.

[21] This is Boulding's conflict continuum:[20] Theorist Andra Medea seeks to explain how individuals, small groups, organizations, families, ethnicities, and even whole nations function when disputes arise between them.

She posits that there are four types or levels of conflict, each operating under distinct rules:[22] Each level moving from first to fourth is characterized by increasing degrees of separation from reality, and decreasing degrees of maturity, in this context, defined as the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction.

[16][37][38] Multi-domain battalions, which first stood up in 2019, comprise a single unit for air, land, space, and cyber domains.

[39] The MDO model recognizes that near-peer competitors might not actually seek conflict with each other, but perhaps merely a near-term advantage in order to buy time for themselves[40][41] in the face of overmatch.

[45] Other multi-domain operations short of war,[46] but still escalating the conflict, might include the shooting-down of military drones.

[50] Other operations short of war in 2018 include undeclared conflicts, involving proxy military units funded by oligarchs,[51][g] but specifically disclaimed by near-peer competitors.

[53][g] Destruction of infrastructure such as fuel pipelines,[55][56][57][58][59] the energy grid,[60][61] or the GPS network, or the financial markets, or confidence in national law and order may be goals for partners, competitors, or adversaries,[62][63] depending on where they might be in the continuum of conflict.

In progressive stages of the narrative, allies, partners, neutral parties, observers, and rivals are encouraged to cooperate with the protagonist.