Worthless COIN? Why the West Should Keep Studying Counterinsurgency
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. The US Army has lost interest in counterinsurgency training. Over the past year, the withdrawal from Afghanistan appears to have drawn a line under COIN’s modern incarnation, while escalation in
The Terrible Trade-Off: Why Governments Must Choose Between More Violence or Stronger Gangs
Christopher Blattman, Benjamin Lessing and Santiago Tobón Nearly every neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia, has a combo, or local street gang—almost four hundred in all. They earn most of their money from local drug sales. Some also run protection rackets, while others market legal goods—arepas, eggs, and even cooking
Who Cares About Context? The Case for Getting Serious in the Civil Environment
Nicholas Krohley and Stefan Muehlich Where, when, how, and why do civil dynamics matter to the military? How do the US military and its NATO allies identify and exploit relevant civil phenomena? To what extent should military commanders care about the overwhelming majority of a given operational environment that is
Money Talks: How Nonstate Armed Groups Finance Their Operations and Intelligence
Laura Jones and Shawna Sinnott Episode 57 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast focuses on how terrorist organizations and other nonstate armed groups finance their activities, and how the United States and its allies can counter those streams of money. Our guests begin by framing the techniques, both legal and illicit,
What NATO’s New Strategic Concept Gets Wrong
Sandor Fabian For the first time in more than a decade, NATO has announced a new strategic concept. Hailed as a historic action, and adopted after a summit in Madrid, the concept provides much-needed strategic clarity by naming Russia the most important and immediate threat to transatlantic security. But
Political Warfare and the Road to Invasion: Irregular Warfare in Ukraine Since 2014
Laura Jones and Kyle Atwell In Episode 56 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast, we conclude our two-part series focused on irregular warfare in Ukraine. In the previous episode, our guests discussed Russia’s conception and employment of irregular warfare in Ukraine from its annexation of Crimea in 2014 to
Time Is Not On Kyiv's Side: Training, Weapons, And Attrition In Ukraine
Andrew Milburn The battalion commander shrugged helplessly when we advised him that five days was a completely inadequate amount of time in which to train his soldiers. “This is all we have—they are needed on the front,” he replied with grim finality. A few days later, on a separate
Learning the Wrong Lessons: The Blind Spots in the US Approach to Foreign Military Training
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. Foreign military training has become one of the most popular tools in the US foreign policy tool kit. Between 1999 and 2016, the United States spent almost $15 billion to train
The SOF Truths: A Different Perspective on Security Force Assistance
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. US special operations forces train, advise, and assist in at least sixty countries every day, preparing allies and partners for conflict. The SOF Truths guide these special operations units; every special
Do Targeted Strikes Work? The Lessons Of Two Decades Of Drone Warfare
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. One of the most controversial US tools of irregular warfare over the last twenty years has been targeted strikes by remotely piloted aircraft, or drones, against terrorist threats in areas outside
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