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.
Systems Thinking: Explaining Security Force Assistance in Complex Adaptive Systems
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 10.20.2025 and is available here. Abstract This article explores how concepts central to systems thinking better explain
Resource as a Weapon: Climate Conflict and Ethnic Tensions in Northern Cameroon
In Northern Cameroon, where the temperature scorches the land and cattle outnumber people, it’s not bullets that are destroying livelihoods—it’s the lack of resources. Resource scarcity in Cameroon is more than just a climate issue; it is a direct catalyst for intercommunal conflict, displacement, and socio-political
Chance and Necessity: Evolving the Supporting Role of SOF to Cyber Operations
Introduction “Evolution is driven by chance and necessity.” This was the mantra of Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod. While Monod was primarily known for his work as a French biologist and philosopher, he also served as Chief of Staff for Operations for the French resistance organization, the Forces Françaises de
Resistance is Victory: Taiwan’s 2025 National Defense Report and Resisting Cognitive Coercion
In October 2025, Taiwan published its latest National Defense Report. This document, released every two years by the Ministry of National Defense (MND), periodically informs the people of Taiwan, “what it has done, what it is doing, [and] what it prepares to do” in their defense. It is an expansive
Sabotage as a “New Normal”
“Efforts will be made in such countries to disrupt national self-confidence, to hamstring measures of national defense, to increase social and industrial unrest, to stimulate all forms of disunity.” -George Kennan, The Long Telegram Since 2022, there has been a spate of high-profile sabotage attacks across Europe: a
Proxies in Hybrid Operations: Insights from the Partnership for Peace Consortium Workshop | Helsinki, Finland, August 2025
From August 5-7, 2025, the Partnership for Peace Consortium’s (PfP-C) Irregular Warfare and Hybrid Threats Working Group met at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (HCOE) in Helsinki, Finland to examine the theme of “Proxies in Hybrid Operations.” The workshop gathered academics, practitioners, and
Advancing the SOF Profession: The future of IWI's SOF Focus Area
Since launching in August 2024, the Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI) “SOF in Competition Project” has aspired to serve as the intellectual home for Special Operations Forces (SOF). As a retired Army Special Forces officer and leadership scholar, I am proud to have taken over this initiative from its founding director,
AI-Driven Disinformation Campaigns on Twitter (X) in the Russia-Ukraine War
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 10.02.2025 and is available here. Abstract In the Russia-Ukraine war, sectors like the digital and psychological
Dr Kerry Chavez, Co-Director of IWI's Air & Space Team, at NATO Strategic Direction-South Hub
Dr Kerry Chavez, IWI’s Co-Director of the Air & Space team, addressed a joint conference of the NATO Strategic Direction—South Hub and the NATO-Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Centre in Kuwait. The theme of the conference was, “The Use of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies by Non-State Armed
The Pentagon Just Issued New Guidance on Irregular Warfare: What Does It Say and Why Should You Care?
On September 29, 2025, the Pentagon released a new Department of Defense Instruction (DODI), numbered 3000.07 and titled “Irregular Warfare.”1 Clocking in at 32 pages and consisting of 80 to 90 percent highly technical or moderate jargon (according to a ChatGPT analysis of its text), the new DODI
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.