"Grey zone" is a term used everywhere in security studies, geopolitics, hybrid warfare, corporate strategy. But it has never been rigorously defined.
The Grey Zone™ is the first systematic conceptualization of this concept.
Not just a geopolitical doctrine.
Not just "the space between war and peace."
The Grey Zone is the fundamental architecture of contemporary power operating across all domains: geopolitical, organizational, interpersonal, psychological.
Once you understand it, you see it everywhere.
And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
The problem with existing definitions
Most definitions of grey zone are descriptive, not structural:
- "Actions below the threshold of war"
- "Ambiguous operations without clear attribution"
- "Hybrid warfare tactics"
These describe symptoms, not the structure.
They tell you what grey zone looks like in geopolitics. They don't tell you why it exists, how it operates, or where else it appears.
The Grey Zone™ provides the structure.
The rigorous definition
The Grey Zone is a liminal space between established categories where power operates through strategic ambiguity to prevent attribution and block conventional response.
Five strict criteria define a Grey Zone situation:
1. Liminality: Between established categories
2. Strategic Ambiguity: Deliberately cultivated
3. Non-Attribution: No clear ownership
4. Cognitive Targeting: Perception is the battlefield
5. Multi-Vectorial: Simultaneous across dimensions
All five present? You're in the Grey Zone.
Four domains of application:
The same geometry that operates in geopolitics operates at every scale.
- Geopolitical: Hybrid warfare, proxy conflicts, cyber ops
- Organizational: Internal power plays, restructuring, sabotage
- Interpersonal: Manipulation, gaslighting, undefined relationships
- Psychological: Cognitive dissonance, internal contradictions
Why now? Why dominant?
The Grey Zone has always existed. What's new: it has become the dominant mode of power. There are a few reasons for this, and I explore this topic everyweek in the newsletter.
The three main reasons are :
1) The technological acceleration. Every new technology creates a legal vacuum. AI, cyber, biotech, crypto... regulation lags behind. By the time law arrives, actors who moved first have set the rules. The Grey Zone thrives in regulatory voids.
2) The fragmentation of reality. Information warfare isn't 20th-century propaganda (one state, one message, control of media). It's decentralized narrative warfare. Millions of actors. Bots. Influencers. Everyone pushing a version of reality.
Result: reality itself becomes contested. The Grey Zone thrives when there's no shared reality.
3) The institutional collapse. Trust in institutions (governments, media, science, churches) is at all-time lows (please refer to my Global Perception report). When there's no recognized authority, the Grey Zone becomes the default.
If you don't understand the Grey Zone, you operate blind.
You will search for clarity where ambiguity is the weapon. You will demand attribution where non-attribution IS the strategy. You will try to resolve contradictions that are designed to coexist and apply conventional frameworks to situations where they structurally fail.
How to navigate the Grey Zone
Three operational modes:
1. Survival mode
When you're targeted by Grey Zone operations:
- Recognize the structure (don't gaslight yourself)
- Don't demand clarity (it won't come)
- Operate in ambiguity without needing resolution
- Create your own attribution when none is given
2. Strategic mode
When you need to operate within Grey Zone and liminal environments:
- Understand the five criteria (know when you're in it)
- Use ambiguity strategically (when appropriate)
- Maintain operational security
- Design multi-vectorial interventions
3. Resistance mode
When you need to collapse Grey Zone operations:
- Force attribution (name what's happening)
- Demand categorization (force choice)
- Make ambiguity untenable
- Expose the structure
In-depth exploration
- The full conceptual architecture
- Learn to navigate the Grey Zone (protocols and courses)
- Read weekly analyses and case studies from the Grey Zone
- In the mind of a Grey Zone Operator (profiling)
Fundamentals corpus:
- Fluidity of power in the Grey Zone
- The Grey Zone and the Law (architecture of fraud)
- Grey Zone and triangulation
- Truth, power, and perception
- Perception shapes reality: the reflexivity theory by George Soros
- Cumulating "frames of references" or the ability to perceive reality from an infinite number of angles
- How to talk across frames: dialogue beyond worldviews
- How to answer the question behind the question
- How to develop an advanced perception
- Identity shifting: the art of shaping your reality
- Language in the Grey Zone and use of jargon (Karp)
Case studies
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
Oriane Cohen
For decision-makers
If you're operating in environments where:
- Threats are real but unattributable
- Adversaries operate without fingerprints
- Conventional responses are blocked by ambiguity
- You're being targeted but can't prove it
You're in the Grey Zone.
You can contact me.
Intellectual lineage
This conceptualization builds on but extends:
- Carl Schmitt (friend/enemy, exception, political theology)
- Victor Turner (liminality, ritual process)
- Gregory Bateson (double bind, schismogenesis)
- Michel Foucault (microphysics of power)
- Hybrid warfare literature (Gerasimov, Hoffman)
- Complexity science (emergence, non-linearity)
But synthesizes them into a unified, operational framework applicable across all domains.