Iran, Ukraine, and the Realities of “Resistance” & “Regime Change”
This article, published in Small Wars Journal in mid-2025, examines the limits of externally driven regime-change strategies through a comparative analysis of Iran and Ukraine. Drawing on Ukraine’s experience of bottom-up resistance, the authors argue that durable political transformation depends on long-term civic mobilisation rather than state-centric or decapitation-focused
Uprooting the Enemy: A New Paradigm for Irregular Warfare Analysis
Editor’s Note: This article and accompanying report are a part of Project SOF in Competition. The report, Integrated Understanding: Re-Thinking the Human Environment of Military Operations, is the first of the Irregular Warfare Initiative's occasional paper series. If you would like to contribute to this Special Project,
Welcome to the Resistance: Call for Papers—SOF in Competition
Team Resistance – SOF in Competition To launch the Project the Resistance Team will take center stage! Welcome to the Resistance strand within the SOF in Competition project, we are setting out an initial agenda for the global IW community of practice. We want to drive debate around issues that range
Ukrainian Civilians Are Pioneering the Art of Resistance
Nonviolent tools are undercutting the Russian occupation. This article, published in Foreign Policy in early 2024, offers unique insights into how civilian networks have pioneered new approaches to non-violent resistance in occupied Ukraine. Written by Dr. Nicholas Krohley, Resistance Team Lead for IWI's SOF in Competition project, examines
Who Cares About Context? The Case for Getting Serious in the Civil Environment
Nicholas Krohley and Stefan Muehlich Where, when, how, and why do civil dynamics matter to the military? How do the US military and its NATO allies identify and exploit relevant civil phenomena? To what extent should military commanders care about the overwhelming majority of a given operational environment that is
Flunking the New York Times Test: Making Sense of Russian “Covert” Action
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. On October 8, 2019, the New York Times published a sensational piece on its front page, detailing the decidedly mixed operational history of Unit 29155 of Russia’s military intelligence directorate,
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
