Sec. 4. Statement of policy. 
Sec. 5. Evaluation of national capacities for conducting gray zone operations. 
Sec. 6. Report on Department of State capacity to respond to gray zone aggres-
sion. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) In 1948, George F. Kennan observed that, 
‘‘In broadest definition, political warfare is the em-
ployment of all the means at a nation’s command, 
short of war, to achieve its national objectives.’’. 
(2) Today, this coercive activity is referred to 
by many names within the United States Govern-
ment and the academic community, most notably 
‘‘gray zone’’ operations. 
(3) Although increasingly employed as a means 
of political warfare, the full contours of gray zone 
operations remain ambiguous. However, central fea-
tures of gray zone operations include that they are 
ultimately directed by state actors, consist of efforts 
not associated with routine statecraft, and are in-
tended to advance a country’s objectives at the ex-
pense of a rival, without crossing a threshold that 
results in kinetic military conflict. They include such 
operations and tactics as the following: 
(A) Information warfare, including con-
ducting 
disinformation 
campaigns 
or 
the 
spreading of propaganda. 
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(B) Encouraging internal strife within tar-
get countries. 
(C) Coordinated efforts to unduly influence 
democratic elections or related political activi-
ties. 
(D) Economic coercion. 
(E) Cyber operations, below the threshold 
of conflict, aimed at coercion, espionage, or oth-
erwise undermining a target. 
(F) Support of domestic or foreign proxy 
forces. 
(G) Coercive investment and bribery for 
political aims. 
(H) Industrial policy designed to monopo-
lize a strategic industry or to destroy such an 
industry in other nations, especially when co-
ordinated with other gray zone operations. 
(I) Military, paramilitary, or similar provo-
cations and operations short of war. 
(J) Government financing or sponsorship 
of activities described in subparagraphs (A) 
through (I). 
(4) Various gray zone operations are frequently 
linked together into a coordinated campaign, that 
may also include tools of routine diplomacy, and that 
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is designed to achieve a state’s political or military 
objective. 
(5) Gray zone campaigns are attractive to state 
actors for several reasons, including reduced costs 
compared to the deployment of conventional forces, 
thereby allowing states to pursue their objectives 
with limited resources. 
(6) The People’s Republic of China, the Rus-
sian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and 
other countries actively advance their own strategic 
objectives and challenge United States interests 
through the extensive use of gray zone operations. 
(7) Unwelcome escalation by adversarial pow-
ers—especially over the last decade—from routine 
statecraft into gray zone competition is a defining 
feature of the recent reemergence of great-power 
competition and requires an appropriate United 
States response. 
(8) The United States has not sufficiently de-
terred or responded to gray zone campaigns, thereby 
risking undermining United States national inter-
ests, diminishing United States influence and credi-
bility, and encouraging rivals to further employ such 
tactics. 
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(9) Successfully responding to adversary gray 
zone campaigns relies upon the full integration of in-
struments of national power across multiple domains 
and the ability to deploy such capacities in a coordi-
nated, real-time campaign. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) gray zone competition is a central and en-
during aspect of great-power competition, and the 
United States should elevate the effective response 
to adversary gray zone campaigns as a central fea-
ture of its approach to great-power competition; 
(2) an effective, whole-of-government approach 
is essential to meeting the gray zone challenges 
posed by competitors of the United States; and 
(3) since gray zone activity takes place below 
the threshold of kinetic military conflict and since 
narrative formation is frequently a critical aspect of 
gray zone campaigns, the Department of State 
should take a preeminent role in coordinating, within 
applicable interagency processes, the disparate 
means of national power as the United States seeks 
to respond to adversary gray zone campaigns. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States to— 
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(1) seek effective responses, particularly at the 
Department of State, to adversary gray zone cam-
paigns and to recognize the paramount importance 
of such responses to the national interests of the 
United States; 
(2) continue upholding the international rule of 
law and the rules-based international order, which is 
a core national security interest of the United 
States; and 
(3) call on United States allies and partners to 
employ sufficient national resources to equitably con-
tribute to the response to gray zone challenges. 
SEC. 5. EVALUATION OF NATIONAL CAPACITIES FOR CON-
DUCTING GRAY ZONE OPERATIONS. 
(a) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall conduct 
a review and submit to the appropriate congressional com-
mittees a report on the processes and capabilities by which 
the United States responds to gray zone campaigns and 
recommendations to enhance such processes and capabili-
ties. 
(b) ELEMENTS.—The report required by subsection 
(a) shall include— 
(1) an assessment of the capability and capacity 
of the United States interagency to— 
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