IW Weekly - 16 August 2026

Drone proliferation cuts across every theater this week — CENTCOM's new multinational attack drone task force, gang warfare in Latin America adopting Ukrainian TTPs, and command-and-control gaps flagged at West Point all point to autonomy outpacing doctrine.

The stronger thread is gray-zone convergence: China's coast guard and maritime militia squeezing Taiwan and the Philippines, Russia's Baltic "maritime insurgency" and hybrid probing of NATO, and Houthi escalation inside the Iran war show rivals settling on sub-threshold coercion as the default mode of competition.

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

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

SAVE THE DATE: 25 Years After, Lessons From America’s Post-9/11 War — September 15; DC

Modern War Conference 2026: Deterrence in the Pacific — September 24-25; West Point

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

Int’l Conference of the Society for Terrorism Research — December 9-11; Sydney, Australia

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 X

From Subversion to Resistance: Lessons from Russia’s War in Ukraine

The Truth About How Critical Minerals Work

How GPS Became a Weapon

The Ukraine War and Russia's Khaki Election

The Return of the Essential Art: Electronic Warfare and the Lessons of the Russia-Ukraine War

Cheap Drones, Dry Taps: The Iran War Opens a New Era of Water Infrastructure Risk

The Cyberattacks on the U.S Water Sector and the Iran Question: Escalation or Opportunism?

CRINK countries increasingly cooperate around the world. U.S. policy must reflect this

War of Position and IW: How Information Shapes Strategic Advantage Before Combat

Hybrid war is here to stay - are the Americans ready?

The Men No One Came For

No Place to Hide: Warfare in the Age of Persistent Observation

'No such thing as a regional conflict anymore,' STRATCOM chief says

The Next School of War: Educating for Tomorrow’s Battlefield

Review Western Thoughts on Counterinsurgency

Decision Advantage in Cognitive Warfare, Part 1

Social Terrain: The Strategic Substrate of Irregular Competition

How Pakistan Became the World’s Frontline Against Industrialized Extremism

The Civil Affairs Team Room

Sustainment as strategy: Why logistics will decide who wins in the Pacific

Front Line Surgery: Mastering Military Trauma Care

Frontier Care in Warfarer Populations

Hours, Not Minutes: Research That Will Keep the Next Generation of Wounded Alive

CENTCOM Launches First-Ever Multinational Attack Drone Task Force

Drones Are Widening the Jungle Fight

US soldiers, Marines test explosive drones in South Korea

How Latin American Crime Groups Adopted Drone Warfare

Cocaine Corridors Beyond Brazil: How Transnational Routes Are Reshaping Border Security

Brazil Crackdown Reveals New Tren de Aragua Playbook

Low-Cost Drones: A New Challenge in the Fight Against Gangs

The Rising Subversion, Chaos & Insecurity in West Africa and the Sahel

INTERPOL Releases Report on AI Cybercrime in Africa

How to push back against Mali's propagandists? Help factual creators go viral

Cocaine and conflict in Mali, Niger, and Libya

US military marching into Puntland as Red Sea tensions escalate

Attempts to Constrain Iraq’s Militias Spell Uncertainty for Disarmament Deadline

The Houthis Enter the Iran War and Everything Gets Worse

Pakistan Middle East Security: Reducing Dependence On China

How Tehran’s Use of Cyber Operations in the U.S.-Iran Conflict Has Evolved

Western Military Expatriates in the Armed Forces of the UAE

Inside NATO’s Bet on Multi-Level Wargaming

Digging Below the Death Zone: The Underground War in Ukraine

Top German General Says Russia Is Probing NATO Defenses With Hybrid Attacks

US special operations forces ready to step up combat drills in Philippines

Inside Taiwan’s budding civil defence movement; ordinary citizens are preparing for disaster

It turned out UK Special Forces’ drone boats were calling home to China. This is serious

How Can U.S. Special Operations Forces Help Defeat China on Taiwan?

Broken Chain: China's Coast Guard and the Long Game of Isolating Taiwan

Australia must not be distracted as China ramps up in the South China Sea

Why China’s “Gray Zone” Campaign Has Extended to Eastern Taiwan

Why Military Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Still Falls Short

U.S. Pacific Command leader visits Vietnam to strengthen defense partnership

China’s Gray-Zone Strategy in the East China Sea: Upping the Ante

China Decoded: Getting busy in the Arctic, again

China's Maritime Militia: Logistical and Regulatory Foundations behind a Maritime Quarantine

Economic Coercion in a Dollar-Centered System

China’s Strategic Ratcheting of the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific’s Gray Zone Problem

Review - Bing West’s Cat 5: The 2033 War

Review - All the Presidents' Wars

Culture and Cognitive Biases of the Strong Enemy and the Pacing Threat

Preparing Populations for Hybrid Attacks – the European Experience

Dragon in the Americas: China’s Power, Presence, and Regional Influence

Crisis, Control, Crusade: Russia’s Propaganda Architecture

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

Ed - Irregular Warfare 101 (IW Basics)

Ed - Irregular Warfare 201 (IW Advanced)

Ed - Irregular Warfare 301 (IW Campaigning)

Ed - Irregular Warfare 401 (IW Campaign Design)

Ed - Irregular Warfare 110 (IW approaches for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense)

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

The Harding Fellowship: A Leadership Opportunity for Army Professionals (due August 15)

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.

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