Hidden Costs of Precision: What Drone Strikes Actually Do to Civilians
New research using cellphone data from Yemen reveals that U.S. drone strikes cause widespread civilian displacement and communication spikes, even when avoiding casualties. These non-lethal disruptions create significant strategic and humanitarian costs overlooked by military planners.
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Podcasts
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Setting Out to Win: Why America Needs to Get Serious About Irregular Warfare
This episode explores why the United States has largely failed at irregular warfare over the past 75 years and what can be done to reverse that trend and win at irregular warfare. LTG (Ret.) Charles Cleveland and Dr. Rob Burrell are the guests.
Iran, Ukraine, and the Future of Naval Warfare
Episode 156 examines what the U.S.-Iran War and Russia-Ukraine War reveal about how weaker states and irregular actors contest navies, maritime commerce, and global energy flows. Summary This conversation examines naval irregular warfare in an era of drones, shadow fleets, contested chokepoints, and attacks on commercial shipping. The
Hellscape Taiwan: Drones, Deterrence, and the Future of Asymmetric Defense
This week’s episode of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how Taiwan could deter—or potentially defeat—a Chinese invasion by transforming the Taiwan Strait into an “unmanned hellscape.” Anchored in the recent CNAS report Hellscape for Taiwan: Rethinking Asymmetric Defense, the conversation explores how drones, autonomous systems, and mobile
Events
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Join Us at the 2026 CIWAG Maritime Symposium
The maritime domain is entering an era of gathering storms and shifting tides. Join leading practitioners, scholars, and policymakers at the 2026 CIWAG Maritime Symposium, taking place 22–24 June 2026 in Newport, Rhode Island, for discussions on some of the most pressing challenges shaping maritime security today. Topics include
Strategic Resources in Competition: Critical Minerals & Rare Earth Elements
21–22 July 2026 · 0830–1600 Carahsoft HQ · 11493 Sunset Hills Road, Reston, VA The Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI) and the Special Operations Association of America (SOAA) will host a two-day conference at Carahsoft Headquarters in Reston, Virginia, focused on the role of critical minerals and rare earth elements in
Geoeconomics of Irregular Warfare: Iran and the Global Ripple Effects — Part VII
In Part Seven of Irregular Warfare Initiative’s series on the Iran conflict, produced by IWI’s Economic & Legal Warfare team, the focus turns to how escalation is being applied across economic, legal, and cognitive domains. The discussion features an expert panel including, Gianni Koskinas (CEO, Hoplite Group), Hamlet
Articles
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Good Change Brings New Leadership, Ideas, and Opportunities to IWI’s Air and Space Power Team
Editor’s Note: As the Air and Space Power Team enters its next chapter, Dr. Kerry Chávez and Dr. Rick Newton will be stepping aside from their leadership roles and passing responsibilities to Dr. Michael Kreuzer. While this marks a leadership transition, the team’s commitment to advancing air and
Operationally Detached: Why Decentralization, Not Consolidation, Is the Future of U.S. Army Special Forces
“The country must turn to, and not away from, the American way of irregular war.” —Lieutenant General Charles T. Cleveland, The American Way of Irregular War (2020) Editor’s Note: This article is a response to “The Last A-Team: Special Forces Aren’t Special Anymore,” and “A New Vision for
We’ll Go No More Enriching
The United States and Israel have struck Iran’s nuclear infrastructure twice in less than a year and have killed dozens of nuclear weapons scientists in what is the most comprehensive and deadly counterproliferation campaign in history. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General says the program has
A New Vision for Special Forces
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part article assessing the past, present, and future of U.S. Army Special Forces. See part one here. The Green Beret's greatest legacy was never the beret. It was the audacity to imagine something that did not exist. That
The Last A-Team: Special Forces Aren't Special Anymore
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part article assessing the past, present, and future of U.S. Army Special Forces. The operating environment has evolved faster than the United States Army Special Forces. Green Berets did not fail at their assigned missions; they failed to sufficiently adapt
From Coal to Code to Reactors: How Wyoming’s State and Local Decisions Shape Irregular Warfare
For much of the twentieth century, Wyoming powered the United States by extracting coal and sending it elsewhere. From the postwar boom through the early 2000s, trains left the Powder River Basin loaded with fuel that kept distant lights on, factories running, and bases operational. Wyoming’s contribution to national
Mercenaries, Private Security, and the Civilian Cost of Outsourced Coercion
While states still use military force in pursuit of national interests, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have become an increasingly common instrument, enabling states to apply pressure, manage escalation, and maintain deniability in ways that conventional deployments cannot. As resistance to foreign troop deployments grows and strategic competition shifts
Neutrality as Vulnerability: Russia’s Hybrid Playbook in Moldova
Moldova’s September elections reaffirmed its pro-EU course, but continued and increased Russian hybrid and military pressure make constitutional neutrality untenable. Russia’s continued “peacekeeping” presence within the internationally recognized Moldovan territory of Transnistria is a daily direct violation of its constitutional neutrality clause. Expressly stated in Article 11, this
Bridging the gap between irregular warfare scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
