Conquest from Within: A Comparative Analysis between Soviet Active Measures and United States Unconventional Warfare Doctrine
Abstract
Contemporary national security challenges demand the continued development of options to best understand and address irregular threats. Unconventional Warfare (UW), traditionally a Special Operations Forces core activity, has served U.S. strategic interests in a variety of operational environments. Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet active measures campaign against the U.S. paralleled the U.S. doctrinal concept of UW in many ways, and provides a non-U.S.-centric case study in understanding a highly complex, long-term campaign approach to influence and subversion. This thesis presents a comparative analysis between active measures and the current U.S. doctrinal framework of UW in order to develop a better common understanding of an irregular strategy increasingly evident in the contemporary operational environment on the part of both state and non-state adversaries. This thesis also develops and presents an amended definition for the term active measures, terminology for assessing UW-like operations from a non-U.S.-centric perspective, and provides recommendations for further research and consideration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 27, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1000486
Entities
People
- Stephanie K Whittle