IW Weekly - 14 June 2026

China's maritime gray-zone pressure campaign, the institutionalization of cognitive and narrative warfare, and a running debate over SOF identity and purpose at the threshold of large-scale combat.

Beijing's coast guard surge east of Taiwan, the flotilla activity amid the Philippines-Japan spat, and contingency planning pieces from Manila and Tokyo all point to deliberate threshold-testing. Cognitive warfare runs as the connective tissue. Taiwan named Beijing's patrols a cognitive warfare act, the Army published its new PSYOP approach, and pieces from Mali to Europe treat perception management as an operational domain, a framing that also drives the SOF identity debate across IWI, Small Wars Journal, and Army Press.

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How should the US counter Russia and China’s hybrid warfare — June 16; DC

Reassessing an Evolving Threat: US CT Strategy in the Middle East — June 17; DC

Maritime Irregular Challenges — June 22-24; Newport, RI

Defense of the Homeland: Maritime & Transportation in IW — July 14-15; Miami

Strategic Resources in Competition: Rare Earths & Critical Minerals — July 21-22; Reston, VA

Global Information Summit Australia 2026 — July 21-24; Adelaide, Australia

African Logistics and Communications Symposium — July 27-30; Ethiopia

Irregular Warfare in the Homeland, IWC Symposium — August 4-6; Arlington, VA

Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium — August 18-20; Honolulu

Introducing APEX 2026 - IPA — September 8-9; Reston, VA

NATO Annual CIMIC Foresight Conference — September 14-18; The Hague

SAVE THE DATE: Inaugural Narrative Strategy Symposium — September 30; DC

Global SOF in Europe Conference — October 6-8; Rome

Future of War Conference — October 26-28; Netherlands

Tactical Trauma 2026 — November 2-4; Sweden

Medicine In the Mediterranean 2027 — January 29-31, 2027; Malta

Phoenix Challenge London 2027 — March 9-11, 2027; London

Have an event to highlight? Send details to mick@stratagemconsultingllc.com.

Geoeconomics of Irregular Warfare: Iran and the Global Ripple Effects — Part VIII

Setting Out to Win: Why America Needs to Get Serious About Irregular Warfare

Inside the China-Russia Partnership

Why Should We Care if Vietnam is Swinging Toward China?

In Moscow's Shadows: The Near Abroad Recedes: Armenia and Belarus

America's Blind Spot

Cyber Espionage in the age of US China Competition

The Illusion of Separation: Civil-Military Coordination in Modern Conflict

Is Time on China’s Side? Beijing’s Taiwan Calculus and the Balance of Power

The Essence of Irregular, Unconventional, and Political Warfare - Dilemmas for Adversaries

Jamming Enemy Weapon Systems and the Law of Targeting

Building a Practical Manual to Disrupt Hybrid Threats and Deter War

What is the role of Civil Affairs in large-scale combat operations?

The Age of Economic Warfare

Why Green Berets Can’t Stop Asking Who They Are

A New Vision For Special Forces

Winning Before War Through Effective Campaigning

Wartime Footing: A Two-Front Strategy to Confront China and Russia

Measuring CT Success: A Risk Management Framework for Government Campaigns

Perspectives: Civil Affairs in the Civil-Military Coordination Center

Space-SOF-Cyber Designs in Trans-Regional, Multi-Domain, Dynamic Security Contests

The Future Horizons of Narrative and Context Warfare

Democratization of Strategic Thought

The Weapon of Frozen Assets: A New Instrument of Maritime Financial Warfare

How China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) threaten the U.S. and our allies

The Army's Bold New Approach to PSYOPS and Cognitive Warfare

What Teaching Taught Me About Cognitive Warfare

Keeping the Drone Swarm Alive

Goodbye, just-in-time. Australia must prepare for contested logistics

What Beirut’s Port Scanners Miss About Militant Supply Chains

The Chain of Peace: Do Supply Chain Chokepoints Deter War?

How Ukraine’s Drone Warfare Is Changing Battlefield Medicine

The Evolution of Combat Medicine and Preparing for Large-Scale Combat Operations

Velocity Kills - Wound Ballistics, Shotguns & Unpredictable Trauma in Prolonged Field Care

Underground Medical Manufacturing - Ukraine’s Shadow Factories Saving Lives

What drone strikes actually do to civilians

U.S. crew saved in first-ever sea drone rescue after Apache crash near Strait of Hormuz

How Drone Boats Are Working As Patrols On The Southern Border

Senate pushes DOD to create new combatant command for unmanned systems

Defining Autonomy: Why Software, Not Drones, Will Decide the Next War

Green and White Money: An Analysis of the Figueira Professional Crypto Laundering and Sanctions Evasion Indictment

Joint Operations in the Americas: Operational Precedent or Strategic Overreach?

The Day After in Cuba

Bolivia's Security Challenges and the Paz Government Response

The Mali Offensive: Between Operational Achievement and the Vision of a Global Caliphate

Nigeria’s Islamist Reckoning

Sudan’s War Beyond the Battlefield: The Struggle for Civil Authority

Civil Affairs Soldiers conduct subject matter expert exchange with Libyan officers

Arms deliveries and AfricaCorps training: How Russia is bolstering presence in Madagascar

Why Mali Is at a Dangerous Crossroads

US would need 1,200 troops to take Kharg Island

Car Bomb Near Moscow Kills Russian Military Ammunition Supply Chief

US Presses NATO Allies to Use Defense Funds for Replacing Huawei Equipment

What a Russian Army Collapse Might Look Like

The Evolution of Ukraine's Asymmetrical Combat Tactics

How Europe became Iran's playground for terror

On Nato’s border with Russia, I witnessed the death of tank warfare

Several Suspected Espionage Cases in Northern Norway

The Ceasefire Is the Next Front: Ukraine's Postwar Risk

US soldiers leave Lithuania as Pentagon reviews next rotation

NATO launches Task Force X-Arctic to strengthen awareness in the Arctic and the High North

HAYI and State-Cover Networks: The Changing Landscape of Terrorist Financing in Europe

Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Programs

Countries across Russia’s former empire are reclaiming place names to assert identity

China Coast Guard Incident Tracker

Reengaging the Solomon Islands: A Strategic Opportunity for the United States

China’s Far-seas Navy and the Logic of Global Presence

Taiwan says Chinese coast guard, research ships near key S. China Sea islands

Chinese Flotilla Surges East of Taiwan Amid Spat with the Philippines, Japan

How US Cable Security Policy Is Restructuring Indo-Pacific Digital Infrastructure

Taiwan says China Coast Guard patrols to its east are 'provocative act'

USNI News Western Pacific Pulse

Taiwan hits back at Beijing’s ‘cognitive warfare’ after coastguard patrols

Why the Philippines and Japan are preparing for a Taiwan contingency

Peril of the Pacific: Military Balance and Battle for Taiwan

Book Review: Fire in the Jungle: Philippine Unconventional Warfare

The competitive advantage – SOF and LSCO

2026 Special Operations Research Topics: Academic Year 2027 Addendum

Call for Papers - Information Professionals Association — due July 31

Papers: “Civil Affairs: Securing the Victory in New Environments” — due September 11

Ed - Hybrid Threats and Cybersecurity — (July 6-31; Garmisch, Germany)

Ed - Homeland Defense and Border Security — (August 10-21)

Ed - Center for Homeland and Defense Studies Self-Study Courses

The IW Weekly is made possible through the generous support of Stratagem Consulting. We're especially grateful to Mick Crnkovich, Founder and CEO of Stratagem, for championing thoughtful, practitioner-oriented resources in the national security space.