Publication

This commentary describes the People’s Liberation Army’s concept of the “Three Warfares” and their role in information operations (IO). The approaches include the coordinated use of 1) strategic psychological operations; 2) overt and covert media manipulation; and 3) legal warfare. Their purpose is to manipulate the strategies, defense policies, and perceptions of target audiences abroad. Further, there’s nothing new about them. They represent an approach to ‘war’ that has long been a part of Chinese statecraft and military power, and that is now being applied against Europe and Asia.