Gray Zone Clarity: Building Irregular Maritime Intelligence through Civilian-Linked Networks
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
Codifying Irregular Warfare—Inside the Pentagon’s new DoD Instruction 3000.07
Episode 142 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast features Dr. Jonathan Schroden, Mick Crnkovich, and Dave Maxwell for a deep dive into the Pentagon’s new irregular warfare policy instruction—DoD Instruction 3000.07—and what it signals about how the U.S. military understands, organizes for, and competes in irregular
Holiday Reading and Charitable Giving Guide from the IWI Maritime Program
For the upcoming Holiday Season – and just in time for Black Friday - the staff of IWI's Maritime Program, along with select authors and experts - are providing the following reading recommendations as gift ideas. Our team is highlighting texts that they find to hold valuable insights on maritime themes,
Systems Thinking: Explaining Security Force Assistance in Complex Adaptive Systems
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 10.20.2025 and is available here. Abstract This article explores how concepts central to systems thinking better explain
Resource as a Weapon: Climate Conflict and Ethnic Tensions in Northern Cameroon
In Northern Cameroon, where the temperature scorches the land and cattle outnumber people, it’s not bullets that are destroying livelihoods—it’s the lack of resources. Resource scarcity in Cameroon is more than just a climate issue; it is a direct catalyst for intercommunal conflict, displacement, and socio-political
Chance and Necessity: Evolving the Supporting Role of SOF to Cyber Operations
Introduction “Evolution is driven by chance and necessity.” This was the mantra of Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod. While Monod was primarily known for his work as a French biologist and philosopher, he also served as Chief of Staff for Operations for the French resistance organization, the Forces Françaises de
Resistance is Victory: Taiwan’s 2025 National Defense Report and Resisting Cognitive Coercion
In October 2025, Taiwan published its latest National Defense Report. This document, released every two years by the Ministry of National Defense (MND), periodically informs the people of Taiwan, “what it has done, what it is doing, [and] what it prepares to do” in their defense. It is an expansive
Sabotage as a “New Normal”
“Efforts will be made in such countries to disrupt national self-confidence, to hamstring measures of national defense, to increase social and industrial unrest, to stimulate all forms of disunity.” -George Kennan, The Long Telegram Since 2022, there has been a spate of high-profile sabotage attacks across Europe: a
Proxies in Hybrid Operations: Insights from the Partnership for Peace Consortium Workshop | Helsinki, Finland, August 2025
From August 5-7, 2025, the Partnership for Peace Consortium’s (PfP-C) Irregular Warfare and Hybrid Threats Working Group met at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (HCOE) in Helsinki, Finland to examine the theme of “Proxies in Hybrid Operations.” The workshop gathered academics, practitioners, and
Advancing the SOF Profession: The future of IWI's SOF Focus Area
Since launching in August 2024, the Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI) “SOF in Competition Project” has aspired to serve as the intellectual home for Special Operations Forces (SOF). As a retired Army Special Forces officer and leadership scholar, I am proud to have taken over this initiative from its founding director,
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
