USMC CWO2 (ret) Bill Callen spoke recently with members of the Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office about how IFCs could have made a significant difference in the operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021.
In an increasingly complex world, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has recognized the need for scalable responses to international conflict that fall between verbal warnings and 30,000-lb bombs. These tools, known as Intermediate Force Capabilities (IFCs), which include incapacitating weapons, information operations, electromagnetic warfare, and cyber tools, are proving indispensable in real-world situations beyond U.S. borders.
The realities of the international security environment are expanding, opening up arenas of competition among nations, militaries, and non-state actors beyond the historical war vs peace dichotomy. Great power competition has surged back to the forefront, reshaping security dynamics not just in the Indo-Pacific but across the globe. Adversaries such as China and Russia are asserting their wills and positions against the United States and our...
The U.S. Sea Services are a vital force in maintaining order and ensuring freedom of navigation in the contested waters of the West Philippine Sea, the place of unfolding strategic power struggles. The top leaders of the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard stated in the U.S. Tri-Service Maritime Strategy that we “must maintain clear-eyed resolve to compete with, deter, and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries while we...
Change has remained constant throughout the 21st century. After two decades of combat operations focused on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has strategically shifted towards a long-term mission of deterrence against peer competitors.
