“The War God’s Face has Become Indistinct”- Updated Whitepaper on Unrestricted Warfare October 21, 2025
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Academic Exploitation, china, cold war, Cyberattacks, Unrestricted Warfare, Volt Typhoon
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I recently updated and republished a paper on Unlimited or Unrestricted Warfare Doctrine against the US. I first wrote on this in 2013 for The Counter Terrorist Magazine and have been keeping the concept updated. Here is a summary…:
“This comprehensive assessment examines the implementation of China’s unrestricted warfare doctrine against the United States from 2020-2025. Developed by PLA Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui following the 1991 Gulf War, unrestricted warfare represents a paradigm shift from conventional military confrontation to asymmetric operations across multiple domains.
This study analyzes documented Chinese operations including: Volt Typhoon’s five-year penetration of critical infrastructure systems; Salt Typhoon’s compromise of nine major U.S. telecommunications companies affecting over one million users; systematic academic infiltration through Confucius Institutes and intellectual property theft costing an estimated $500 billion annually; congressional penetration operations targeting rising political figures and senior officials; and state-level influence campaigns exemplified by the Linda Sun case.
The analysis demonstrates how China employs cyber operations, political influence, academic exploitation, and infrastructure pre-positioning to achieve strategic objectives while avoiding direct military confrontation. Drawing on government reports, intelligence assessments, and primary source materials, this work examines the doctrine’s principles of asymmetry, omnidirectionality, and minimal consumption as manifested in contemporary operations. The study concludes that unrestricted warfare represents a coherent strategic framework specifically designed to neutralize American conventional military advantages by exploiting vulnerabilities in open democratic societies.”
“CyberSecurity Cold War” – Spending ourselves into Oblivion May 8, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in competitive intelligence, cybersecurity, Industry News.Tags: bloomberg, Chris Mark, cold war, cybersecurity, mark consulting group, reagan, risk management, security, soviet union, victory school
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A recent report published by Bloomberg outlines the challenges of securing critical infrastructure against cyber attacks in the 21st century. According to a survey of 172 companies in six industries, current security measures are only stopping 69% of cyber attacks against banks, utility companies and other ‘critical assets’. To stop 95% of attacks, companies would need to spend 7 times more than they are today. This would increase spending from $5.3 billion$30.8 million average) to $46.6 ($270.9 million average). This, it is estimated, would still only prevent 95% of attacks. While not a consistent increase, it could be calculated that for every 1% increase in protection, another $1.588 billion would need to be spent by the group. This amounts to roughly $9.23 million per company…for each 1% increase in protection. If this is indeed accurate, it is clear that the current perspectives and strategy of cybersecurity is fatally flawed.
During the 1980’s the US and Soviet Union were fully engaged in a Cold War. With the election of President Ronald Reagan, the US’s strategy changed. A major component of Reagan’s strategy was to exploit the inherent inefficiencies in the Soviet Union’s command economy. By increasing spending, and forcing the Soviets to match spending on an arms race, the theory held that the SU could be bankrupted. This has become known as the “Reagan Victory School” and while not completely responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union, can be credited as hastening their demise. As outlined in a Stanford piece: “A central instrument for putting pressure on the Soviet Union was Reagan’s massive defense build-up, which raised defense spending from $134 billion in 1980 to $253 billion in 1989. This raised American defense spending to 7 percent of GDP, dramatically increasing the federal deficit. Yet in its efforts to keep up with the American defense build-up, the Soviet Union was compelled in the first half of the 1980s to raise the share of its defense spending from 22 percent to 27 percent of GDP, while it froze the production of civilian goods at 1980 levels.” (more…)
Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management 