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 Tyranny Of Color Coded Maps: What We Get Wrong About Measuring Control During Armed Conflict
Ibraheem Bahiss, Ashley Jackson, Leigh Mayhew and Florian Weigand After a stunning military advance, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. This seemingly sudden takeover, with hundreds of districts falling like dominos, took most observers by surprise. After all, maps had long shown most of Afghanistan’s
Teaching Irregular Warfare In The Era Of Strategic Competition
Elena Pokalova The 2022 National Security Strategy focuses on US leadership in strategic competition over the future of international order. The document lays out the threats and challenges the United States faces today from adversaries such as Russia and China. In order to prevail over such competitors and secure US
Teaching Irregular Warfare In The Era Of Strategic Competition
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. The 2022 National Security Strategy focuses on US leadership in strategic competition over the future of international order. The document lays out the threats and challenges the United States faces today
Russia's Vast Cyber Web Enables Deniability And Obscurity—But Not Without Risks
Justin Sherman Describing every cyber operation coming from within Russia as a “Russian cyberattack” obscures the large, complex, and often opaque web of different cyber actors in Russia—each with varied relationships with the state. As I describe in a new Atlantic Council report, there are cybercriminals operating at the
Kin Killing: When And Why Governments Target Family Members
by Emil Souleimanov, David S. Siroky and Peter Krause Sometimes, when it comes to civil war and insurgencies, it’s all in the family. Consider the example of Bashar al-Assad, in Syria. Assad appointed family members to prominent military positions to ensure institutional loyalty, while nearly one-quarter of
Redefining Irregular Warfare: Legitimacy, Coercion, And Power
by David H. Ucko and Thomas A. Marks The Department of Defense is working on a new definition of irregular warfare, and the stakes are surprisingly high. The danger lies not just in forgetting whatever was learned from twenty years of engagement with substate actors through counterinsurgency and counterterrorism. Rather,
How To Improve Your Pickup Aviation Advising Game
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. The United States failed in its attempts to build air forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for numerous reasons. Chief among these was policymakers’ excessive ambition: they failed to consider what the
Hiding In The Noise: Preparing The Irregular Warfare Community For The Age Of AI
by Matthew Moellering According to the 2020 Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy, the United States is underprepared to counter irregular warfare; the dawn of the AI age compounds this problem. As AI continues to transform human society by fundamentally changing how people experience reality, US adversaries are
Hiding In The Noise: Preparing The Irregular Warfare Community For The Age Of AI
This Irregular Warfare Initiative article was originally posted through our partner organization, the Modern War Institute at West Point. According to the 2020 Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy, the United States is underprepared to counter irregular warfare; the dawn of the AI age compounds this problem. As
The Pentagon's Reckoning With Civilian Casualties Is A Good Start—But It's Only A Start
by Paul Lushenko On August 25, the US Department of Defense announced sweeping changes to help minimize civilian casualties in war. The “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan,” or CHMR-AP, followed the botched drone strike in Afghanistan in August 2021, which killed ten civilians. Following this tragedy, a
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