Unrestricted Warfare

This article is about book on military strategy. For a type of unrestricted warfare, see Total war. For other uses, see Unrestricted submarine warfare.
Unrestricted Warfare
The cover to the original Simplified Chinese edition
AuthorsWang Xiangsui
Qiao Liang
Original title超限战
LanguageChinese, English
PublisherPeople's Liberation Army Literature and Arts Publishing House
Publication date
February 1999
Publication placePeople’s Republic of China
ISBN9787540318871
Followed byUnrestricted Warfare and Countering Unrestricted Warfare (2016) 
WebsiteUnrestricted Warfare at the Internet Archive

Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization[1] (simplified Chinese: 超限战; traditional Chinese: 超限戰; lit. 'warfare beyond bounds') is a book on military strategy written in 1999 by two colonels in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Qiao Liang (乔良) and Wang Xiangsui (王湘穗).[2] Its primary concern is how a nation such as China can defeat a technologically superior opponent (such as the United States) through a variety of means.[3] Rather than focusing on direct military confrontation, this book instead examines a variety of other means such as political warfare.[4][5][6][7] Such means include using legal tools (see lawfare) and economic means as leverage over one's opponent and circumvent the need for direct military action.[8][9][10][11]

  1. ^ McReynolds, Joe (10 January 2017). China's Evolving Military Strategy. Brookings Institution Press. p. 41. ISBN 9780985504595.
  2. ^ Liang, Qiao; Xiangsui, Wang (1999). "Unrestricted Warfare". People's Liberation Army Literature and Arts Publishing House. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.169.7179.
  3. ^ "Unrestricted warfare". The Institute of World Politics. 2002-08-22. Archived from the original on 2023-08-24. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  4. ^ Commin, G; Filiol, E (2015). "Unrestricted Warfare versus Western Traditional Warfare: A Comparative Study". Journal of Information Warfare. 14 (1): 14–23. ISSN 1445-3312. JSTOR 26487515.
  5. ^ Spalding, Robert (2022-04-19). War Without Rules: China's Playbook for Global Domination. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-593-33104-0. OCLC 1333782936.
  6. ^ Hagestad, William T. (2012). 21st Century Chinese Cyberwarfare. IT Governance Publishing. doi:10.2307/j.ctt5hh5nz. ISBN 978-1-84928-334-2. JSTOR j.ctt5hh5nz. S2CID 265579729.
  7. ^ Spalding, Robert (October 2019). Stealth War: How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept. Penguin. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-593-08434-2. OCLC 1119746281.
  8. ^ Adams, David A. (July 2003). "Managing China's Transition". Proceedings & Naval History Magazine. ISSN 0041-798X. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  9. ^ Van Messel, John A. (January 2005). "Unrestricted Warfare: A Chinese doctrine for future warfare?". Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-08-23.. (full text Archived 2023-08-24 at the Wayback Machine).
  10. ^ Bunker, Robert J. (March 2000). "Unrestricted warfare: Review essay I". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 11 (1): 114–121. doi:10.1080/09592310008423265. ISSN 0959-2318. S2CID 145170451.
  11. ^ Cheng, Dean (March 2000). "Unrestricted warfare: Review essay II". Small Wars & Insurgencies. 11 (1): 122–123. doi:10.1080/09592310008423266. ISSN 0959-2318. S2CID 144355000.