The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

ole for MOOTW will have on their land locked service.
Three authors at AMS have identified two contradictions
in MOOTW: The first is the contradiction
between self and the enemy; and the second is contradictions
among the people. As Senior Colonel Zhou
Peiqing and two colleagues at the AMS wrote in a
2009 article on MOOTW in China Military Science:
In particular, in performing the tasks of combating terrorism,
maintaining stability, preserving rights, and
coping with emergencies, we are often faced with situations
in which there are contradictions between the
enemy and ourselves, and contradictions among the
people, nationalities problems, and religious problems,
and overt struggles intertwined with covert struggles.
In such situations, our troops have to withstand extremely
stern political tests. 36
The larger point is that such missions are very important
but very complicated. As such, “[a]lthough
military operations other than war are not combat operations,
because they occur abruptly, require arduous
duties and involve perilous circumstances of fairly
long duration, the demands they place on the fighting
spirit of officers and men is no less than wartime operations.”
37 Moreover, these are often linked to larger
political, economic, social, or international issues note
the AMS researchers. Writing from their roost in the
higher echelon as a CMC-affiliated research institute,
the authors are addressing all three layers of the PLA
pyramid: “Most military operations other than war,
such as emergency rescue, disaster relief, anti-terrorism,
and stability maintenance, are closely linked to
the international and domestic situations, and have a
bearing on the national image, the nation’s economy
and the people’s livelihood, and social stability.” 38
MOOTW performed inside the country involve
close coordination with CCP organs, including grass-
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