Infrastructural War – A Term for Coordinated Systems Dismantling

[gritty orchid]

Hi all,
Following a discussion in #usa-canada, I wanted to open a thread here to explore a term I’ve been working with: infrastructural war.

Working Definition:

Infrastructural war describes the coordinated dismantling of public systems, like healthcare, housing, education, transit, currency, and economic access through destabilization tactics that don’t involve open conflict. It includes currency manipulation, resource withholding to coerce institutions (economic terrorism), and the destruction of scientific, public health, and emergency response infrastructure, as well as the collapse of large employers and social service capacity. These actions often target civic resilience and public trust, functioning as undeclared warfare on population-level capacity.

Unlike regulatory capture (where industry co-opts specific agencies), infrastructural war operates across systems, using scarcity logic and sabotage to degrade the commons, intentionally or through weaponized neglect.

Purpose of This Post:

This isn’t just about terminology, it’s about building clearer language for a new pattern many are living through. I’m proposing infrastructural war to name the multi-systemic, coordinated nature of what’s happening.

I know this channel is usually for concrete news- I hope this framing post is okay as an exception. The goal is to improve how we communicate what’s unfolding across regions.

Related Terms:
Democratic backsliding – Important but often electoral in focus.
Resilience attack – Useful, not widely adopted.
Regulatory capture – Agency-level, not systemic.
Competitive authoritarianism – Regime-centered, not infrastructure-centered.

Looking for Feedback:
Does this term resonate with what you’re seeing?
Are there better academic or activist framings?
What language helps others grasp what’s happening?

[stable willow]

Consider also the concept of the "parallel state," specifically it's use in describing the buildup to Nazi and Soviet systems. This is part of conceptual IW, as you can't entirely or immediately dismantle those parts of the government or private industry which are still nessecary to function for both regular state activities and the continuation of parallel activities for the further consolidation of parallel power.

I would be of the mind to say that regulatory capture and parallel organizational structures are two tools, methods, overlapping strategies by which infrastructural warfare occurs.

Merely advocating for a point I'm certain I've already a sense the counter-point of; what delineates this conceptual Infrastructural Warfare from a more literal sense of warfare on infrastructure, be it from an external force (your enemy at war attacks your logistics) or internal (a dissident internal group sabotages state logistics)?

[ionic mauve]

So one thing we have an issue with here in the US is creating a never-ending cornucopia of referential terms. I don't think new ones are bad but I am curious what you'd use to draw it in distinction from the following -

Irregular Warfare, Low Intensity Conflict, Population-Centric Warfare, Economic Warfare, Political Warfare, and Information Warfare?

Technically all of these have overlapping points this could largely fit into, granted specifics could alter that a bit.

[gritty orchid]

Maybe we end up dominating war terminology because our society is an innovator in warfare

[ionic mauve]

A running joke actually, when we fail we tend to just recode with new buzzwords then, proceed based off not paying attention to our failures. I do think new terms can be helpful but imo we have so many distinct ones already that new terms, unless it's truly referencing something new, should reflect the integration of ideas usually occuring.
As an alternate example, "Defense Support to Strategic Competition" recently arose as a term to reference DoD providing Irregular Warfare support to other governments, militaries, and interagency services - especially in cases where they may reference/participate in activities that is not IW to the other.
This term specifically was created to help speak with distinct partners due to our confusing set of terms, although rather than seeking to be new, it seeks to frame understanding of things that already exist (IW) and their applied context.
I think it may be worth taking up that frame since its end result would still retain efficiency as a distinct reference, then covering other related terms from that frame can help draw out how useful it'd be in offering said frame of understanding.

[gritty orchid]

It isn’t a physical attack. The infrastructure is sabotaged at the conceptual / structural / informational level not the physical level. Society has become information and resource allocation and weaponizing money systems and information systems can delete the infrastructure capability from society.

[gritty orchid]

Because it isn’t a physical attack it doesn’t require the logistics war normally requires, and it can affect a larger population all at once. The population is harmed due to the inability to fulfill its own need for the ingredients of life. Trade disruption etc. just exacerbates the resource issues.

[daring tulip]

We have that every day in Ukraine. It also was a strategy in WW2 as it is in all other wars.

[floral estuary]

The bit that looks almost unprecedented is the government using the tools it has against it's population without the use of weaponry for the most part.

Like using hundreds of people to take apart a house by pulling out the nails and the screws and removing support beams instead of bulldozing it

And then chucking the supplies and parts into the dumb so they can't be reused

[gritty orchid]

Did your wealthy take over your IT and accounting systems and shut down your government agencies?

[gritty orchid]

Yes but it is like they are using information systems to instantly delete the structure of the house. It is a new war tactic.

[stable willow]

I don't know much about how an Oligarchy works, but id imagine it's a system in which the wealthy have explicit control over infrastructure that would otherwise be held in the public trust.

[daring tulip]

I completely misinterpreted your thread and you def use the wrong terms when you call that war.

[gritty orchid]

What alternative terms would you use to describe Infrastructural War and why?