WASHINGTON, DC — October 8 — The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) today launched the Global Shadow War Initiative, a new grouping of experts dedicated to providing meaningful and practical solutions to democratic allies to counter an unconventional campaign of aggression that authoritarian states are waging.

Today, authoritarian adversaries are enabling each other in a concerted campaign of coordinated aggression. From Europe to the Indo-Pacific and beyond, Russia and China are aligned in their intent to unseat US global leadership. This is not a so-called “hybrid threat” – this is full-spectrum war, designed to be perceived as below the threshold of war. This is a global shadow war.

North Korean soldiers fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine. Drones built on Iranian designs cross into Europe’s airspace. Chinese factories help fuel Moscow’s war machine. Shadow warfare strikes at the critical foundations on which successful allies and partners depend. Despite this growing threat, the United States and allies in Europe and Asia largely remain on the back foot, reacting to attacks rather than anticipating and getting in front of them. CEPA’s Global Shadow War Initiative is designed to close that gap.

CEPA President & CEO, Dr. Alina Polyakova, said, “Getting ahead of this threat is a core pillar of CEPA’s work – building the alliances, identifying the most effective and proactive actions to respond, and translating them into implementable policies.”

Christopher Walker, vice president of CEPA, said, “Today’s authoritarian powers, including China and Russia, use a vast and adaptable toolkit of influence to keep free societies off balance. A successful response demands a new, more forward-leaning response from a global coalition of allies.”

Building on CEPA’s leadership and deep expertise in transatlantic security, the initiative will provide surge capacity and leverage a community of thought leaders, policymakers, and subject matter experts to formulate credible response strategies and help harden democratic defenses to deter future aggression. This work will define how democratic allies and partners fight back and retake the initiative. The initiative builds on CEPA’s long-established body of work on shadow and hybrid warfare, including an in-depth initiative that produced the reports War Without End: Deterring Russia’s Shadow War and War Without End: Understanding Russia’s Shadow Warfare, and a wider body of analysis, research, and commentary on this vitally important challenge.