Where does interdiction collide?

In operations research, interdiction is a two-player optimisation problem in which an interdictor removes or degrades components of a network (arcs or nodes under a budget) to worsen the best response an adversary can achieve, such as maximum flow or shortest path. Wood's 1993 Deterministic network interdiction formulated the maximum-flow interdiction problem as an integer program, and Israeli and Wood's 2002 Shortest-path network interdiction extended it to path problems. The referent is a formal max–min problem over a graph, sharing only the name with a military operation or a drug seizure.[1][2]

Unit

The worsening of an adversary's optimal network objective achievable within an interdiction budget

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Solved as a max–min (bilevel) integer program over the network's arcs or nodes

In military strategy, interdiction is the use of force, classically air power, to cut or disrupt an enemy's lines of communication, supply, and reinforcement before those resources reach the battle, as distinct from close support of troops in contact. Pape's 1996 Bombing to win analyses interdiction as one coercive strategy, weighing when attacking movement and logistics actually constrains an opponent's operations. The referent is a kinetic campaign against an adversary's flows of men and materiel, related only by metaphor to a graph-theoretic optimisation or a counter-narcotics seizure.[3]

Unit

The degree to which an enemy's flow of supply, movement, and reinforcement is cut

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Evaluated by reductions in enemy throughput, movement, and sustainment reaching the front