Defense, Power & Security The Costs and Benefits of Unconventional Warfare and Subversion
October 23, 2020
By
Nick Lopez and Kyle Atwell | Irregular Warfare Podcast
Perry World House Lightning Scholar Melissa Lee guests on Irregular Warfare, a podcast from the Modern War Institute at West Point and Princeton University's Empirical Studies of Conflict Project.
What are unconventional warfare and foreign subversion? Will they be important in an era of great power competition? What are some of the second- and third-order effects when states use subversion to undermine their rivals?
Retired Lt. Gen. Ken Tovo and Dr. Melissa Lee join the Irregular Warfare Podcast to discuss these topics and more. They both agree that unconventional warfare and subversion can be highly effective at undermining targeted states. However, they also caution that unconventional warfare can be a costly form of war with long-term implications for the spread of ungoverned space and state fragility. Given the anticipated prevalence of foreign subversion and unconventional warfare over the coming decades, our guests argue that the US government should be prepared to defend against it, and potentially engage in unconventional warfare as well.
