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...
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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...
New Addition: Irregular Warfare Reference Library
The Irregular Warrior is creating a reference library of public domain studies and doctrine related to irregular warfare. Our first additions to this library are from the Assessing Revolutionary and Insurgent Strategies (ARIS) project. ARIS consists of research conducted for the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) by the National Security...
Should we ditch unconventional warfare? A Special Forces officer would, and instead focus on support to Political Warfare
Misunderstandings about the nature of unconventional warfare and what it can be expected to accomplish are hindering the effective use of this core mission of US special operations forces. Replacing the term with the more readily understood “support to indigenous resistance” and reconnecting it to the concept of political...
Using the Interagency Conflict Assessment Framework to Create a Stable Security Environment in Iraq
Using ICAF to create sustainable stability in Iraq An article over at Small Wars Journal, Preventing OIF III: Using the Interagency Conflict Assessment Framework to Achieve a Sustainable Iraqi Security Force, tackles the tough issue of the long game in Iraq: preventing continued civil war after the fall of...
Iran’s Unconventional Warfare in Yemen
An article by our editor on Iranian unconventional warfare in Yemen appeared this morning on Small Wars Journal. Written from the Iranian point of view, the article analyzes the Iranian conduct of unconventional warfare in Yemen, and addresses the feasibility of the operation, suitability to the strategic position of...
Understanding Worley’s “United States Political Warfare Policy”
In January 2015, strategic advisor and military force structure analyst Dr. D. Robert Worley released a draft think piece that delves into how the United States should engage in political warfare in order to successfully ensure stability of countries experiencing subversion. The piece can generally be described as a...