US Military Faces Critical Gap in Strategic Influence Capabilities

The United States military’s narrow focus on kinetic warfare risks leaving it dangerously unprepared for the battles of tomorrow. A growing body of evidence shows that adversaries are increasingly leveraging influence campaigns to shape outcomes, often at a fraction of the cost of conventional military operations. This stark contrast has only grown more pronounced since 2019, when analysts first warned that lethality must extend beyond physical destruction to also include the ability to erode an