Horns of a Dilemma International Law in the Gray Zone
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Aug 11, 2025 Richard Maass, an associate professor at Old Dominion University and expert in international law, joins to discuss gray zone aggression. He highlights how countries like Russia and China exploit ambiguous legal frameworks to undermine state sovereignty. The conversation covers the need for clearer definitions and stronger legal deterrents to address these challenges. Maass also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary research in creating innovative strategies to counteract these tactics, illustrating the complexities of modern international relations.
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Why The Gray Zone Is Attractive
- The gray zone consists of aggressive acts that stop short of war and exploit the lack of a clear legal threshold.
- This makes gray zone competition attractive because it avoids the normative focal point that legitimizes military retaliation.
Norms Constitute Security Categories
- International norms shape security categories like 'war' and therefore influence state incentives and behavior.
- Changing legal norms can shift policymakers' incentives and reduce the appeal of gray zone tactics.
Legal Gap Creates The Gray Zone
- Current law defines aggression as use of armed force, leaving non-armed aggression legally unaddressed.
- That legal gap creates the gray zone by excluding non-war forms of aggression from the aggression category.