Strategic Resources in Competition: Critical Minerals & Rare Earth Elements
21–22 July 2026 · 0830–1600 Carahsoft HQ · 11493 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA The Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI) and the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA) will host a two-day conference at Carahsoft Headquarters in Reston, Virginia, focused on the role of critical minerals and rare earth elements
Q&A with Vib Altekar, Co-Founder and CTO of Saronic Technologies
On June 8, a Saronic Corsair autonomous surface vessel located and recovered the crew of an Apache helicopter after it went down off the coast of Oman, the first time an ASV was utilized in an active combat rescue mission. On May 11, Vib Altekar, Co-Founder and CTO of
How America's Adversaries Learned to Weaponize Reality
Russia, China, and Iran use sophisticated narrative warfare to shape politics, while the US relies on an outdated Cold War model. Modern conflict is a battle of narrative endurance; strategic success depends on whose political story is believed, not who wins on the battlefield.
The Wars Nuclear Weapons Don't Prevent
This episode of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how nuclear weapons shape great power competition, making direct war less likely while encouraging indirect conflict. Guests are General Richard D. Clarke, Dr. David Logan, and Dr. Kyle Atwell.
IW Weekly - 21 June 2026
IRREGULAR WARFARE WEEKLY Keep Warfare Irregular June 21, 2026 This Week Autonomous systems reshaping tactical reality, criminal and militant networks expanding their governance reach, and China's steady accumulation of influence across multiple theaters. Ukraine's battlefield continues to drive the autonomy debate — AI-powered "Terminator"
Geoeconomics of Irregular Warfare: Iran and the Global Ripple Effects — Part VIII
In Part Eight of Irregular Warfare Initiative’s special series examining the conflict with Iran, produced by IWI’s Economic & Legal Warfare team, our expert panel featuring Norman Roule (Former Senior U.S. Intelligence Official), Hamlet Yousef (IWI Economic & Legal Warfare Advisor), and Tom Johansmeyer (Co-Lead, Economic
The Iran War: A War with or against the AI Sector?
The 2026 Iran War marks the dawn of hyperwar, accelerating military AI integration while disrupting critical upstream supply chains like Qatari liquid helium. This dual physical and financial pressure creates a shared strategic crisis for both the U.S. and Chinese AI sectors.
Hidden Costs of Precision: What Drone Strikes Actually Do to Civilians
New research using cellphone data from Yemen reveals that U.S. drone strikes cause widespread civilian displacement and communication spikes, even when avoiding casualties. These non-lethal disruptions create significant strategic and humanitarian costs overlooked by military planners.
A Bed-ROC-k for Total Defense: Building a Practical Manual to Disrupt Hybrid Threats and Deter War
While the Resistance Operating Concept guides post-occupation survival, states require a practical peacetime framework to deter hybrid aggression. This article proposes an international Total Defense manual, drawing on Finnish history, to operationalize whole-of-society resilience.
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
