1-1. Threats to U.S. interests throughout the world are countered by the ability of U.S. forces to respond to a wide variety of challenges along a conflict continuum that spans from peace to war as shown in figure 1-1. U.S. forces conduct a range of military operations to respond to these challenges. The conflict continuum does not proceed smoothly from stable peace to general war and back. For example, unstable peace may erupt into an insurgency that quickly sparks additional violence throughout a region, leading to a general war. (See JP 3-0 for the specific types of joint operations conducted across the conflict continuum.)