The Silk Road of Crime: Chinese Criminal Networks
Chinese criminal networks have built a global illicit infrastructure and the Western Hemisphere is now a key battlespace. Economic and Legal Warfare Project hosted a fireside chat to discuss how Chinese criminal groups connect chemical suppliers, Mexican cartels, Latin American corruption, diaspora associations, digital scam syndicates, and sophisticated money-laundering pipelines
Assessing “Cognitive Warfare”
Editor’s Note: this article is being republished with the permission of Small Wars Journal as part of a republishing arrangement between IWI and SWJ. The original article was published on 11.14.2025 and is available here. Despite its introduction over a decade ago by the People’s Liberation
The Cyber Wars That Weren’t
✉️ Email header below is auto-generated from this post’s author tag. It only appears in the newsletter — please don’t edit or delete it. At the onset of the Israel-Iran conflict, news websites warned the public of the possible collateral damage the Israel-Iran fight could generate in cyberspace. The ominous
Understanding Hybrid Threats: Insights from the Belgian Cyber Force Commander
This IWI Project Europe Fireside Chat examines Belgium’s perspectives on hybrid warfare, with a particular focus on cyber-attacks and information warfare. To do so, we welcomed one of Belgium’s key figures in the cyber domain: Major-General Pierre Ciparisse. Appointed in September, General Ciparisse serves as Commander of the
IWI Editorial’s Year in Review: Looking Back at 2025
Where else would you find pirates, space special forces, sharp debates over Operation Spider’s Web, cultural heritage protection as a means of outcompeting China, and even an AI chatbot designed to anticipate Beijing’s next grand-strategic move …all under one roof? In 2025, that place was the Irregular Warfare
Review of Special Operations and National Security: Policies, Strategies, and Tactics by Ben Gans
When everything is “special,” nothing is. In Special Operations and National Security: Policies, Strategies, and Tactics, Ben Gans confronts an enduring and increasingly relevant question: what exactly constitutes a special operation in the modern era? As technological innovation, multidomain integration, and the blurring of military and intelligence activities reshape contemporary
Russian Maritime Sabotage: From Subcomponent of Special Operations to Evolving Form of Irregular Warfare
Russian sabotage is a matter of growing concern in Europe, with the risk of maritime sabotage taking particular prominence. And yet, the offence of ‘sabotage’ was only introduced in the UK in 2023, under the UK’s National Security Act. Sabotage is a key component of irregular warfare, whether conducted
Microinsurgency: Introducing and Defining a Distinct Category of Intrastate Conflict
Editor’s Note: this article is being republished with the permission of Small Wars Journal as part of a republishing arrangement between IWI and SWJ. The original article was published on 11.12.2025 and is available here. Introduction Microinsurgencies, small-scale armed conflicts over natural resources internal to one country,
Japan’s Strategic Challenges: Historical Lessons and the Imperative for Comprehensive War Understanding
Editor’s Note: This article was submitted as part of the Irregular Warfare Initiative’s 2025 Writing Contest, in which authors were invited to explore how the United States and its partners can use irregular warfare to strengthen security cooperation, build trust, and enhance resilience among Indo-Pacific nations. This article
IWI Fellow on CIMSEC’s Sea Control Podcast: Outsourcing Security at Sea
Irregular Warfare Initiative Fellow Pieter Zhao was featured on the Sea Control podcast from the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC), discussing his article “Outsourcing Security at Sea—The Return of Private Maritime-Security Companies and Their Role in Twenty-First-Century Maritime Security.” The episode examines the expanding role of private maritime-security
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
