text: Chapter 1
  ground to buttress resource claims, coercive economic practices, supporting proxy forces, and spreading
  disinformation. However, several adversaries have both the ability and the will to conduct armed conflict
  with the United States under certain conditions, which requires Army forces to be prepared at all times for
  limited contingencies and large-scale combat operations.
  1-16. Global and regional adversaries apply all
  instruments of national power to challenge U.S. The notion of integrated deterrence goes beyond
  preventing armed conflict. It includes preventing
  interests and the joint force. Militarily, they have
  adversaries from increasing the scope and intensity
  extended the battlefield by employing
  of their malign activities conducted below the
  network-enabled sensors and long-range fires to
  threshold of armed conflict
  deny access during conflict and challenge friendly
  forces’ freedom of action during competition.
  These standoff approaches seek to—
  (cid:122) Counter U.S. space, air, and naval advantages to make the introduction of land forces difficult and
  exploit the overall joint force’s mutual dependencies.
  (cid:122) Increase the cost to the joint force and its partners in the event of armed conflict.
  (cid:122) Hold the joint force at risk both in the U.S. and at its overseas bases and contest Army forces’
  deployment from home station to forward tactical assembly areas overseas.
  1-17. Adversaries increase risk to the U.S. joint force in order to raise the threshold at which the United
  States might respond to a provocation with military force. By diluting the joint force’s conventional
  deterrence, adversaries believe they have greater freedom of action to conduct malign activities both within
  and outside the U.S. homeland. Adversaries exploit this freedom of action through offensive cyberspace
  operations, disinformation, influence operations, and the aggressive positioning of ground, air, and naval
  forces to support territorial claims. Adversaries employ different types of forces and capabilities to attack
  private and government organizations, threaten critical economic infrastructure, and disrupt political
  processes, often with a degree of plausible deniability that reduces the likelihood of a friendly military
  response. Conducting these activities in support of policy goals threatens allied cohesion, weakens responses,
  and creates additional opportunities. (See paragraphs 2-40 through 2-44 for description of enemy information
  warfare.)
  1-18. Threat standoff approaches intensify other friendly challenges. These challenges include—
  (cid:122) Gaining and maintaining support of allies and partners.
  (cid:122) Maintaining the continuous information collection needed to determine composition, disposition,
  strength, and activities of enemy forces.
  (cid:122) Integrating and synchronizing intelligence at all echelons, distributed across large operational
  areas with diverse requirements.
  (cid:122) Preparing forward-stationed forces to fight and win while outnumbered and isolated.
  (cid:122) Protecting forward-positioned forces and those moving into a theater.
  (cid:122) Minimizing vulnerability to weapons of mass destruction.
  (cid:122) Maintain C2 and sustainment of units distributed across vast distances in noncontiguous areas and
  outside supporting ranges and distances.
  (cid:122) Maintaining a desirable tempo while defeating fixed and bypassed enemy forces.
  (cid:122) Defeating threat information and irregular warfare attacks against the United States and strategic
  lines of communications.
  1-19. Army forces prepare to conduct operations in contested theaters prior to and during armed conflict,
  including in the United States. Army forces must account for being under constant observation and the
  threat’s ability to gain and maintain contact in all domains, wherever they are located. Army forces must be
  ready to deploy on short notice to austere locations and be capable of immediately conducting combat
  operations. During the initial phases of an operation, Army units may find themselves facing superior threats
  in terms of both numbers and capabilities. The first deploying units require the capability to defend
  themselves and continuously collect information on threat activities, as they provide reaction time and
  freedom of maneuver for follow-on forces. Army units with limited joint support may have to defend while
  at risk from enemy long-range fires. Forward-stationed forces may defend critical terrain with other coalition
  forces to delay enemy offensive operations. Some forward-stationed forces may defend joint bases to mitigate