The Integrated Joint Force: A Lethal Solution for Ensuring Military Preeminence

"To deal with the complexity of these challenges and the need to integrate all the various elements of national power, forward-based and rotational joint forces are the most credible signal of commitment the U.S. can provide. While the United States military is the most formidable on the planet, its adversaries operate beyond physical battlegrounds.

These adversaries employ sophisticated techniques integrating propaganda, disinformation, political subversion, cyber-attacks, and criminal activity to achieve their desired endstates. These techniques fall beneath the threshold of traditional military force, allowing these adversaries to make operational gains without tripping the go-to-war calculus of the U.S.-led global order. This is essentially strategic competition with a military dimension less than armed conflict. Russia demonstrated some of these capabilities as part of its operations into Georgia, Crimea, and the Ukraine. North Korea demonstrated its advanced cyber capabilities in November 2014 when they launched a cyberattack on Sony Pictures, and China has built artificial islands in the South China Sea to advance its sovereignty claims on vital international waterways that are part of the busiest maritime trade routes in the world."