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.
Los límites de la decapitación de líderes: consecuencias estratégicas del exceso de confianza en la fuerza militar para la transformación política
Read in: English Nota del editor: Este artículo fue publicado originalmente en inglés. Por favor, consulte la versión original, ya que pueden existir errores de traducción. Durante más de dos décadas, la política de seguridad nacional de EE. UU. ha confiado repetidamente en la decapitación de líderes como un mecanismo
Al-Hol’s Collapse: How Syria’s Detention Crisis is Enabling Islamic State Resilience
At its peak, the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria was the largest detention site in the post-2019 Islamic State (IS) detention and displacement system, housing approximately 25,000 individuals. In January 2026, a contested transfer of custody from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to the Syrian government triggered
Hannah Lamb’s “Angle of Attack” Featured on Chief of Staff of the Army’s March 2026 Recommended Articles List
The Irregular Warfare Initiative is proud to highlight that “Angle of Attack: Apache Attack Helicopters in Unmanned Skies,” by Hannah Lamb, has been featured in the March 2026 edition of the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Recommended Articles List, published by Army University Press. Lamb’s article offers
Covert Crypto: a Double-edged Sword for Special Operations
“For covert operations, the misconception that crypto is inherently 'anonymous' is hazardous... Instead, crypto provides the potential for non-attribution or deliberate exposure, depending on the type of operation.” In the current landscape of strategic competition and irregular warfare, the ability to operate covertly in the financial domain
The Limits of Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Consequences of Overreliance on Military Force for Political Transformation
Leer en: Español For more than two decades, U.S. national security policy has repeatedly relied on leadership decapitation as a mechanism for catalyzing systemic change. In practice, this has often meant turning to military force as the primary instrument for resolving problems rooted in political decay, institutional corruption, and
Solving the Dilemma: A Leadership Model for Irregular Warfare ('Guerrilla Leader Series' - Part 3 of 3)
“Every intervention begins as a story of liberation. Without adaptation, it ends as a story of occupation.” Why do militarily superior forces consistently win the fight—but lose the peace? This is not a new question. It is the defining paradox of modern irregular warfare. From Vietnam to Afghanistan to
Commercial Pathways and Proxy Power: How Irregular Forces Acquire Advanced Capabilities
In June 2024 Italian customs officials opened shipping containers labeled "wind turbine parts" bound for Libya. Inside were disassembled components for Chinese Wing Loong II drones—the same systems UN investigators had forensically linked to the January 2020 Tripoli military academy strike that killed twenty-six cadets. Four
Claimed or Unclaimed: Patterns of Attribution in Global Terrorism
Editor’s Note: this article is being republished with the permission of Small Wars Journal as part of a republishing arrangement between IWI and SWJ. The original article was published on 02.18.2026 and is available here. Despite extensive research on terrorist violence, far less attention has been paid
The Insurance Weapon: How Commercial Risk Logic Became an Irregular Warfare Tool at Hormuz
Before Iran laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz and before the IRGC began striking tankers with drones, the strait had already been effectively closed. Within 48 hours of coordinated U.S.–Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, war risk premiums surged fivefold, major marine insurers terminated existing
The Strategic Shift: A Leader’s Guide to the Risk to Follower Model (‘Guerrilla Leader Series' - Part 2 of 3)
"Understanding this model is the key to knowing when to lead with decisive action and when to lead with empathetic connection. It is the essential next step in moving beyond short-term tactical success toward long-term strategic victory." In the preceding analysis—the first installment of what
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
