This Week in Irregular Warfare 22 – 28 February Welcome to the first installment of The Irregular Warrior’s news digest. No summary can capture all the news related to irregular warfare around the world, but we hope you’ll find this collection to be interestingly broad in its scope in...
New feature on The Irregular Warrior
Starting very shortly, we’ll be trying something new: a news digest of happenings around the world related to irregular warfare. This will probably be a weekly feature, but we’ll see what ends up working best. In any event, we have high hopes for this project, and we think you’ll...
Words Matter — Changing irregular warfare terminology can help the U.S. fight against its global competitors
Kevin Bilms argues in his recent article at War on the Rocks on irregular warfare terminology that redefining the core elements of irregular warfare (unconventional warfare, stabilization, foreign internal defense, counter-terrorism, and counterinsurgency) will help its practitioners and proponents to explain what it is they do, and why it...
Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service capture ISIS child recruiter
The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service conducted a raid in late October in Fallujah, resulting in the capture of the suspected leader of an ISIS child recruitment ring, according to Stars and Stripes. And it did so without a single shot fired. This is evidence of its growing capability and independence...
An Irregular Reading List
Welcome to our irregular warfare reading list. As anyone who reads this blog understands, continual study is necessary both to confront the dangers posed by the modern security environment and to understand irregular conflicts of the past. A deliberate course of reading is an essential component of that continual...
Committing to Success in Afghanistan
It is foolish to claim that Afghanistan is going well, for us or for them. But there is still reason to hope, and the U.S. has important interests in seeing progress.
Barnett Rubin’s Theses on Peacemaking in Afghanistan: A Manifesto
Royalist and republican, Khalqi and Parchami, Soviet Union and the West, communist and Islamist, mujahid and Talib, Hanafi and takfiri, al Qaeda and America, warlord and technocrat, Pashtun and non-Pashtun, Islamic Emirate and Islamic State, KGB, ISI, and CIA – all have for decades carried on an uninterrupted struggle in Afghanistan....
The Norms of Proxy War: Guidelines for the Resort to Unconventional Warfare
In previous posts on this blog, we have described the use of proxy forces to impose costs on a shared adversary (AKA, unconventional warfare). But perhaps the most difficult aspect of unconventional warfare is not in its planning or execution, but in knowing when it is an appropriate approach...
Almost Diplomatic: EP11 – Space Pt 2: Revenge of the Satellites – Anti-Satellite Systems and the Commercial Space Sector
Join the Almost Diplomatic crew to discuss geopolitics, national security and nonsense over a couple beers. Episode Eleven we return to space with a special guest to make us look better. We focus on Anti-Satellite Systems (ASAT) and their dynamics along with the future of the commercial sector of space...
Afghan Air Force Makes Headway as Tactical Air Controllers Get More Extensive Training
An article in Military Times describes the strides made in recent operations by Afghanistan’s own tactical air controllers: During recent operations around Marjah, Afghan troops used small ScanEagle drones to identify targets, which were then destroyed by Afghan A-29 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft, said Marine Maj. Kendra Motz, a...