Articles
Our articles cut through the noise on irregular warfare to connect strategic theory to operational reality and translate complexity into insight for practitioners and policymakers. No time to read? Check out our podcast, "Insider: Short of War," which transforms our articles into concise, engaging audio pieces you can listen to anywhere. Available directly in most of our articles and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms.
The Lessons of 20 Years of Counterinsurgency Research
Elizabeth Radziszewski The Congressional Research Service’s November 2022 report to Congress on the implications of great power competition for US defense policy emphasizes greater focus on strengthening US high-end conventional capabilities to counter Russia and China. The final section of the report briefly notes the need to meet
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
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
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
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
More Than “Wet Gap Crossings”: Riverine Capabilities Are Needed For Irregular Warfare And Beyond
Walker Mills Given its centrality to Ukraine’s commercial and trade development, it is not surprising that the Dnipro River has again become a focal point for the ongoing war in Ukraine. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Ukrainian waterways as space to maneuver troops and move supplies. Ukrainian
More Than “Wet Gap Crossings”: Riverine Capabilities Are Needed For Irregular Warfare And Beyond
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. Editor’s Note: This article is part of IWI’s Project Maritime, a series exploring the intersection of irregular warfare and the modern maritime dimension. The project aims to contextualize challenges
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.