Tainted Catch: The Role of the Distant Water Fishing Fleet in China’s Campaign to Defeat the West
Editor’s note: This article is part of IWI's Maritime Program, which explores modern challenges and opportunities in the maritime dimension at the intersection of irregular warfare and strategic competition. As the death tolls mount in kinetic conflicts around the world – in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and elsewhere – the
Maximizing The Indigenous Approach: Using Secondment to Enable Our Partners and Constrain Our Adversaries
Editor’s Note: This article earned first place in the Irregular Warfare Initiative’s 2025 Writing Contest, “Irregular Allies: Strengthening Regional Partnerships through Unconventional Means.” Authors were asked: How can the United States and its partners use irregular warfare to strengthen security cooperation, build trust, and enhance resilience among Indo-Pacific
Applying the Alaska Territorial Guard Concept to Modern Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare
Editor’s Note: This article earned second place in the Irregular Warfare Initiative’s 2025 Writing Contest, “Irregular Allies: Strengthening Regional Partnerships through Unconventional Means.” Authors were asked to explore how the United States and its partners can use irregular warfare to strengthen security cooperation, build trust, and enhance resilience
Austronesian Identity as “Networked Deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific
Editor’s Note: This article earned third place in the Irregular Warfare Initiative’s 2025 Writing Contest, “Irregular Allies: Strengthening Regional Partnerships through Unconventional Means.” Authors were asked to respond, in 800 words or less: How can the United States and its partners use irregular warfare to strengthen security cooperation,
Announcing the Winners of the IWI Summer 2025 Writing Contest
In late June, IWI announced our first writing contest that focused on a tailored, real-world scenario. We were excited to follow through on a key priority for our editorial team and the impact we hoped it would have on the community of practitioners, academics, and policymakers that comprise IWI. As
IWI Advisor Calls for Targeted Cyber Backstop
Matthew McCabe, IWI’s Economic and Legal Warfare Project Advisor, published a new article in Threat Beat outlining how the U.S. can bolster cyber resilience through a federal reinsurance backstop focused on critical infrastructure sectors. He argues that the insurance market alone cannot absorb catastrophic cyber risk. This is
Future of War Part I: Raiders at the Edge of Tomorrow
Episode 135 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast kicks off a four-part series on the future of war, pairing renowned author and futurist August Cole with senior special operations leaders to explore how tomorrow’s conflicts may unfold. Our conversation centers on Cole’s short story Safe Harbor II, which envisions
Decoding Intent in Irregular Warfare: Lessons from Venezuela, Iran, and the Strategic Use of Ambiguity
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 08.12.2025 and is available here. Irregular warfare rarely begins with declarations or formal campaigns, but that does
Irregular Solutions for Irregular Threats: Maritime Lessons from Dutch Counterpiracy Operations in Colonial Indonesia
Editor’s note: This article is part of IWI's Maritime Program, which explores modern challenges and opportunities in the maritime dimension at the intersection of irregular warfare and strategic competition. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @proj_maritime. With the de facto closure of the vital Red Sea
An Introduction to the Economic & Legal Warfare Project
Irregular warfare thrives in the proverbial “gray zone”—that murky space between war and peace, conflict and stability. The past several decades have shown a need to move beyond Cold War-era orthodoxy, where military force was the primary lever of assertive power, to an environment in which non-military hard power
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
