Thread by @MollyMcKew

How do we change our mindset to better deter grey zone threats at home and abroad?

1) The Kremlin relies on below-threshold conflict to achieve strategic objectives. We must enhance our capabilities in these domains, and also how we monitor and assess threats in grey spaces. /1

https://twitter.com/mollymckew/status/1351327347950178304

2) The way we engage the Kremlin allows Russia to evade consequences, which encourages them to take greater risks and accelerate disruptive activities in their near abroad and further afield. We must own our role in contributing to this state of affairs, and up-end this cycle. /2

3) Ignoring Russian behavior creates a system that also requires us to ignore things about ourselves. We must evaluate the weaknesses that we have failed to confront, renew our strength at the seams, reconceptualize what resilience & defense are in an era of grey threats. /3

4) If we can build strength where we know we haven’t had it against Russia, this gives us a better position against China + enhances a domestic fabric of resilience to better mobilize our resources and respond to threats and crises (like pandemics, fires, attacks, more) /4

5) We must refocus on shaping outcomes in a state of perpetual change, not achieving an endstate. /5

Admit our failings but remember our strengths.

Develop a new toolkit that enhances options to respond so that attacks & threats below-threshold can be met with an appropriate response.

Better assess where we should act, where we may need sharp capabilities & mobilization. /6

The grey spaces are where we are losing — in the world and at home.

This is where power has shifted across the past decade. This is where we must be to alter the equation. /7

greatpower.us/p/the-way-ahea…