Maritime Sabotage: Protecting Europe’s Soft Underbelly
The September 2022 attacks on the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines convinced many in Europe that malign actors have the capability and intent to attack critical undersea infrastructure. While the attacks targeted gas pipelines, equally vulnerable is the vast system of fiber-optic and data cables that underpin the global exchange
Unchecked and Uncooperative: How the Pentagon Has Thwarted Congressional Oversight of Security Cooperation Programs
When the administration of President Joe Biden redeployed US forces to Somalia in May 2022, it promised that those forces would not be “directly engaged” in combat operations. They would instead support their Somali partners to “enable a more effective fight” against al-Shabaab, a regional al-Qaeda affiliate. Since the redeployment,
Weaponizing Rights: An Untapped Tool for Special Operations Forces
Joseph Bedingfield In September, after the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the morality police, demonstrations broke out across Iran. In response, the government has arrested thousands and killed hundreds. The bedrock grievance fueling the protestors’ narrative is a 1981 law mandating that women wear
A Full Spectrum of Conflict Design: How Doctrine Should Embrace Irregular Warfare
China’s gray zone conflict. Russian hybrid warfare. These terms have emerged to describe belligerent activities that standard US military operations struggle to address. Although these adversarial approaches remain central to today’s security environment, they are absent from the current joint doctrinal framework. Even the new joint doctrine note
How to Lose an Unwinnable War: Why Intervention in the Sahel has Failed
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. The security situation in the Sahel region is complex, daunting, and not improving. The annual number of fatalities caused by conflicts in that part of Africa is estimated to have risen
War Transformed: How Emerging Technologies Are Changing Human Conflict
Ben Jebb and Adam Darnley-Stuart Episode 74 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines the effect of emerging technologies on warfare, and addresses the issues that today’s combat leaders will face on modern-day battlefields. Our guests begin by considering what past technological revolutions can teach us about changes in warfare
Congress Should Mandate Human Rights Vetting For Partner Forces: The Case For Closing The Section 127E Loophole
In July 2022, Representative Sara Jacobs and Senator Chris Van Hollen proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023 that would have required human rights vetting for assistance provided by US special operations forces under Section 127e of Title 10, US Code. While the
The Future Of Urban Warfare
Urbanization is drastically altering the global population distribution. With over half of the world’s growing population residing in cities, future combat will likely occur in these urban environments. Yet this dense terrain presents risks unlike any other type of warfare on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. On August
Connecting The Dots: An Inside Look At The National Defense Strategy
Episode 73 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines the National Defense Strategy and the way it interacts with irregular warfare. Our guests begin by describing the importance of the NDS and the way it distills guidance from the National Security Strategy down to the Pentagon. They then examine how the
Seizing The Digital Initiative: Zero Trust And Persistence In The Cyber Domain
Laura Jones and Maggie Smith Episode 72 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast is the first episode of the special Irregular Warfare Initiative Project Cyber. IWI projects explore critical topics impacting the modern practice, policy, and study of irregular warfare. Led by subject matter experts, each IWI project aims to cultivate
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
