US Warns of 'Gray Zone' Conflict With China, Russia, North Korea

Matthew Savill, the director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute and a former civil servant within the U.K. Ministry of Defense, spoke to Newsweek about the concept of a geopolitical "gray zone," and the activities which fall under this umbrella. While Savill said that many of these activities were arguably as much a feature of the Cold War as 21st Century statecraft, he acknowledged that recent developments have made them a larger concern for states. "Developments in cyber capabilities and globalization have provided more points of vulnerability and therefore opportunities for such acts," Savill said, before adding that "examples abound" of recent gray zone activities by the four states the ODNI identified.