News & Briefings

With the shift of the US strategic focus toward China as America’s main competitor, both the Department of Defense and academic experts have been examining what a war with China would look like. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, all these analyses overlook one of the most important aspects of such a war: how it would affect the homeland and the US population. The 9/11 attacks demonstrated that the notion that the homeland, protected as it is by two vast oceans, is untouchable is no longer true. If nineteen hijackers with about $500,000 could cause such unimaginable physical and psychological damage, consider what China could do with its vast resources, years of preparation, and deep reach into US society.

Naval Special Warfare operators are working on a short timeline to ensure the rapid integration of equipment and technologies to optimize their capabilities. Capt. Jared Wyrick, Special Operations Command’s program executive officer for maritime, measures his modernization timeline against the so-called “Davidson Window,” a timeframe named after a 2021 warning by then-Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. Philip Davidson, who indicated that the Chinese were on a potential military readiness path to invade Taiwan by 2027.

The Department of Defense (DOD) recognizes two general forms of warfare: conventional and irregular. DOD defines conventional warfare as a violent struggle between nation-states or coalitions, and alliances of nation-states, fought with conventional forces.” It is important to note that as we seek to rebuild our own lethality in conventional warfare, our adversaries will become more likely to emphasize irregular approaches in their competitive strategies to negate our advantages and exploit our disadvantages.