Commander of US Strategic Command Navy Adm. Richard Correll speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 26, 2026 in Washington. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
TAMPA — Commanders should expect any conflict in the information age to expand far beyond the geography where missiles are flying or troops are warring, and in that environment, controlling information may become as consequential as controlling physical terrain, US Strategic Command’s top officer said Tuesday.
While regional or local wars are still fought over territory, commanders shouldn’t expect the wars to stay confined to the battlefield, Adm. Richard Correll told an audience here at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s DoDIIS conference.
“There is no such thing as a regional conflict anymore,” Correll said. “Every conflict is global in the information domain.”
That will have implications for decision-makers, Correll added. Modern deterrence, for instance, will increasingly depend on understanding events occurring far beyond the physical boundaries of any individual theater because a war may start in one spot, but its cyber operations, narratives, intelligence campaigns and political effects can circle the globe almost immediately.
