Download or read book Crafting Strategy for Irregular Warfare written by Thomas a Marks and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy made headlines by officially downgrading terrorism as a national security priority in favor of "inter-state strategic competition." Many interpreted the statement as signifying a return to "conventional combat," yet a closer reading suggests that even state-based competition is likely to be "irregular." Much like insurgent adversaries, states blend separate instruments of power to offset military weakness, weaponize narratives to ease strategic progress, and exploit social and political contradictions to undermine and divide target societies. The effort to understand this approach has generated new jargon-"hybrid war," "the gray zone"-yet the United States and the West in general struggle to overcome their entrenched presumptions about war. Such confusion constitutes an upstream source of analytical friction with implications for how strategy is conceived and implemented. Based on the pedagogical approach of the College of International Security Affairs within the National Defense University, this article presents an analytical framework to assess and respond to irregular threats. Though terminological precision and analytical frameworks are no panacea for the malaise facing Western strategy, it is an indispensable starting point for all that must follow.

Download or read book Irregular Warfare the Future Military Strategy for Small States written by Sándor Fabian and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought provoking essay on the possible implications of irregular warfare in national military strategy.

Download or read book Irregular Warfare written by Fouad Sabry and published by One Billion Knowledgeable. This book was released on 2024-05-27 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is Irregular Warfare Irregular warfare (IW) is defined in United States joint doctrine as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations." In practice, control of institutions and infrastructure is also important. Concepts associated with irregular warfare are older than the term itself. How you will benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Irregular warfare Chapter 2: Guerrilla warfare Chapter 3: Information warfare Chapter 4: Unconventional warfare Chapter 5: Insurgency Chapter 6: Irregular military Chapter 7: Counterinsurgency Chapter 8: Directorate of Operations (CIA) Chapter 9: Colombia-United States relations Chapter 10: Partisan Ranger Act (II) Answering the public top questions about irregular warfare. Who this book is for Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Irregular Warfare.

Download or read book Irregular Enemies and the Essence of Strategy Can the American Way of War Adapt written by Colin S. Gray and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-08-04 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategist Colin Gray offers a detailed comparison between the character of irregular warfare, insurgency in particular, and the principal enduring features of "the American way." He concludes that there is a serious mismatch between that "way" and the kind of behavior that is most effective in countering irregular foes. The author poses the question, "Can the American way of war adapt to a strategic threat context dominated by irregular enemies?" He suggests that the answer is "perhaps, but only with difficulty."

Download or read book Irregular Enemies and the Essence of Strategy written by Colin S. Gray and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author offers a detailed comparison between the character of irregular warfare, insurgency in particular, and the principal enduring features of "the American way." He concludes that there is a serious mismatch between that "way" and the kind of behavior that is most effective in countering irregular foes. The author poses the question, Can the American way of war adapt to a strategic threat context dominated by irregular enemies? He suggests that the answer is "perhaps, but only with difficulty."

Download or read book Irregular Warfare written by Arnold Milton and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At present, America's enemies are of an irregular character. These irregular enemies necessarily wage war in modes that are largely unconventional. Join operations concepts describe how the join force is expected to conduct joint operations within a military campaign in the future. They identify the broad military capabilities necessary to achieve the ends envisioned by the concept. Since the original version of the Irregular Warfare Joint Operating Concept was approved in September 2007, the understanding of irregular warfare has continued to evolve. This book explores how the joint forces must operate to counter irregular threats and to guide force development, material and non-material capability development, and experimentation when directed by the President or Secretary of Defense, to prevent, deter, disrupt and defeat non-state actors, as well as state actors who pose irregular threats.

Download or read book Rediscovering Irregular Warfare written by A. R. B. Linderman and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), which conducted sabotage campaigns and supported resistance movements in Axis-occupied Europe and in Asia, is often described as Winston Churchill’s brainchild. But as A. R. B. Linderman reveals in this engrossing history, the real genius behind Britain’s clandestine warriors was Colin Gubbins, a British officer who forged the SOE by drawing on lessons learned in irregular conflicts around the world. Following Gubbins through operations he studied and participated in, Linderman maps the evolution of the SOE from its origins to its doctrine to its becoming a critical institution. Part biography, part intellectual and organizational history, Rediscovering Irregular Warfare is the first book to explore the origins of a substantial force in the Allies’ victory in World War II. Although popular history holds that Britain entered World War II with no prior knowledge of or experience with underground warfare, Rediscovering Irregular Warfare tells us otherwise. Linderman finds ample precedent in the clearly documented work of Gubbins and his fellow clandestine organizers. He traces Gubbins’s career from 1914 through World War I and such irregular conflicts as the Allied intervention in Russia, the Irish Revolution, and conflicts in British India. To these firsthand experiences, Gubbins added the insights of colleagues who had served with him and in Iraq, as well as what he learned from the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Arab Revolt led by T. E. Lawrence, the German guerrilla war in East Africa, the revolt in Palestine between the world wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the Second Sino-Japanese War. The two booklets that Gubbins wrote based on his accumulated knowledge offered the first synthesis of British unconventional warfare doctrine: practical guides that emphasized the centrality of local populations; the collection, protection, and use of intelligence; the necessity of cooperating with conventional forces; and the use of speed, surprise, and escape in ambush operations. In 1940, when Gubbins joined the newly created SOE, the experience and know-how codified in his guides formed the basis of Britain’s approach to irregular warfare. The history of the SOE’s doctrinal origins is Colin Gubbins’s story. By telling that story, Rediscovering Irregular Warfare amplifies and clarifies our understanding of the Second World War—and of doctrines of unconventional warfare in the twentieth century.

Download or read book Winning Without Fighting written by Rebecca Patterson and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book offers a framework for an American grand strategy with a corresponding approach for visualizing progress towards its achievement. The authors contend that instead of conventional military conflict, irregular warfare (IW)--"activities short of conventional and nuclear warfare that are designed to expand a country's influence and legitimacy, as well as to weaken its adversaries"--along with transnational threats, characterize today's competitive landscape. Thus, in addition to military capabilities, U.S. grand strategy must extend beyond the purview of the DOD. Given that this is an era of crises as well as of competition, any effective strategy must also include ways to preserve and bolster national resilience"--

Download or read book Theory of Irregular War written by Jonathan W. Hackett and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-12-25 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Afghanistan to Angola, Indonesia to Iran, and Colombia to Congo, violent reactions erupt, states collapse, and militaries relentlessly pursue operations doomed to fail. And yet, no useful theory exists to explain this common tragedy. All over the world, people and states clash violently outside their established political systems, as unfulfilled demands of control and productivity bend the modern state to a breaking point. This book lays out how dysfunctional governments disrupt social orders, make territory insecure, and interfere with political-economic institutions. These give rise to a form of organized violence against the state known as irregular war. Research reveals why this frequent phenomenon is so poorly understood among conventional forces in those conflicts and the states who send their children to die in them.

Download or read book Strategic Analysis of Irregular Warfare written by Mark W. Lukens and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) in 2006 stated, "Irregular warfare has emerged as the dominant form of warfare confronting the United States." Terrorism and insurgency, and counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, are all subsets of irregular warfare. Conventional warfare models are often used at the strategic level to inform programmatic decisions. The modeling and dynamics of irregular warfare are not well established. An attempt to model an irregular warfare scenario took place in 2007 to 2009 within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This process, however, failed to produce output which could inform program decisions. As a result the Secretary of Defense is making programmatic decisions without a cogent modeling paradigm for terrorism and insurgency. As the focus of warfare changes from conventional to irregular so must the warfare models and the resulting strategic analysis. This paper will review the theories, the doctrine, and propose a new computational model to replicate the dynamics of irregular warfare.

Download or read book Redesigning Strategy for Irregular War written by Ben Connable and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This working paper derives from an ongoing research effort to improve U.S. strategic design to defeat the Islamic State (IS), a hybrid insurgent-terrorist group that currently holds territory in Iraq and Syria, and has affiliates across the world. The current strategy to degrade, defeat, and destroy the Islamic State, and American strategies to succeed in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, reveal serious flaws in the Western approach to strategic design: ends are unclear, yet it seems hard to envision clean and concise ending to such complex problems. Simple yet substantive modifications to terms and design processes can greatly improve the viability of long-term military campaigns targeting irregular, or hybrid adversaries. In this working paper I argue that selection of strategy should derive immediately from a policymaker's broader vision for the world and then a region, and only then to defeat a specific group like IS. I offer a simple yet practical interpretation of terms to facilitate this selection. The central argument in this working paper is that the American "ends, ways, and means" approach to military strategy should be modified to address complex irregular warfare problems like the one posed by IS. It is unrealistic to imagine irregular wars ending on clear, finite terms, so American strategist should stop trying to shoehorn irregular war planning into an ill-fitting ends, ways, and means paradigm designed for conventional war. Once ends, ways, and means are modified for irregular war, the U.S. and its allies should consider similar modifications to the strategic design process writ large, with the intent of improving military and governmental effectiveness, reducing costs, and avoiding the kind of political backlash that often undermines long-term military operations. To focus this argument, I offer changes within the context of the counter-IS strategy. Examples in this working paper center on IS and the Middle East. However, findings and recommendations are intended to have broader relevance.

Download or read book Small Boats and Daring Men written by Benjamin Armstrong and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, and striking enemy facilities and resources on shore. Even John Paul Jones, father of the American navy, saw such irregular operations as critical to naval warfare. With Jones’s own experience as a starting point, Benjamin Armstrong sets out to take irregular naval warfare out of the shadow of the blue-water battles that dominate naval history. This book, the first historical study of its kind, makes a compelling case for raiding and irregular naval warfare as key elements in the story of American sea power. Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, Armstrong examines the era’s conflicts with nonstate enemies and threats to American peacetime interests along Pacific and Caribbean shores. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work—with reference to original naval operational reports, sailors’ memoirs and diaries, and officers’ correspondence—is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power. Offering a critical new look at the naval history of the Early American era, this book also raises fundamental questions for naval strategy in the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Irregular Warfare Special Study written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides study results, research, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations concerning doctrinal implications of Irregular Warfare (IW) as introduced/described in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (2006 QDR) report and the subsequent Quadrennial Defense Review Irregular Warfare (IW) Roadmap. Specifically this study identifies current joint doctrinal treatment of IW and its aspects, to include content of ongoing revision efforts; identifies any joint doctrinal voids concerning IW and proposes courses of action for resolving identified voids; and identifies terminology implications/doctrinal issues related to IW. The study used a systematic approach by gathering pertinent information and then analyzing it in relation to IW. Thorough research and data collection was conducted on IW. Analysis centered on IW terminology and possible doctrinal voids and redundancies within the 10 IW activities (aspects) listed in the IW roadmap and, as a minimum, their associated joint publications (JPs). Conclusions were drawn regarding the doctrinal implications of IW. Finally, recommendations were made regarding the joint doctrinal treatment of IW and courses of action proposed for resolving identified joint doctrinal voids.

Download or read book Why So Conventional America s Propensity to Wage Traditional Large Scale Warfare written by Naval Postgraduate Naval Postgraduate School and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-07-16 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has repeatedly engaged in irregular warfare-including counterinsurgency, foreign internal defense, and unconventional warfare-throughout its history. However, despite its familiarity with irregular warfare, there is reluctance on the part of U.S. presidents, military leaders, and even the general public to engage in this form of war. This work asks why the U.S. security mindset is focused on traditional large-scale warfare, even when the threats the United States has faced, and will continue to face, are mostly irregular. To answer this question, this work uses Arreguin-Toft's strategic interaction model-which looks at why same-approach and opposite-approach strategies (direct and indirect) favor strong and weak actors differently-to analyze the U.S. Revolutionary War, when the United States was the weak actor, and the Vietnam conflict, when the United States was the strong actor, and to assess whether the United States implemented the correct forms of strategic interaction in each conflict. This study finds that the United States' propensity for traditional large-scale warfare is based upon its desire to achieve victory in the shortest amount of time. Furthermore, a preponderance of resources and instruments of war has also impelled the United States to employ overwhelming mass, maneuver, and firepower, instead of irregular warfare with a protracted timeline strategy."

Download or read book A Boydian Approach to Mastering Unconventional Warfare written by Josh Luberisse and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2023-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Boydian Approach to Mastering Unconventional Warfare" is a seminal work that delves deeply into the strategic principles of John Boyd, a legendary military strategist, and applies them to the complex realm of unconventional warfare. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of Boyd's key concepts, most notably the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), and explores their application in the context of irregular and asymmetric conflicts that dominate the modern geopolitical landscape. The author meticulously explores how Boyd's principles of adaptability, speed, and fluidity in decision-making can be applied to unconventional warfare tactics such as guerrilla warfare, insurgency, counterinsurgency, and cyber warfare. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological and moral dimensions of warfare, in addition to the physical aspect, a concept Boyd championed and which remains highly relevant in today's conflict scenarios. Through a blend of historical analysis, case studies, and contemporary examples, "A Boydian Approach to Mastering Unconventional Warfare" offers insightful strategies for dealing with non-traditional threats in a rapidly evolving global context. It addresses the challenges of combating non-state actors, the use of technology in irregular warfare, and the need for innovative and adaptive strategies in response to the unpredictable nature of modern conflicts. This book is not only a tribute to Boyd's groundbreaking work but also an essential guide for military strategists, policymakers, and security professionals who are grappling with the complexities of contemporary warfare. It provides a nuanced understanding of how unconventional warfare strategies can be developed and executed effectively, making it a crucial addition to the field of military strategy and national security studies

Download or read book Defending Air Bases in an Age of Insurgency written by Shannon Caudill and published by Military Bookshop. This book was released on 2014-08 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology discusses the converging operational issues of air base defense and counterinsurgency. It explores the diverse challenges associated with defending air assets and joint personnel in a counterinsurgency environment. The authors are primarily Air Force officers from security forces, intelligence, and the office of special investigations, but works are included from a US Air Force pilot and a Canadian air force officer. The authors examine lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as they relate to securing air bases and sustaining air operations in a high-threat counterinsurgency environment. The essays review the capabilities, doctrine, tactics, and training needed in base defense operations and recommend ways in which to build a strong, synchronized ground defense partnership with joint and combined forces. The authors offer recommendations on the development of combat leaders with the depth of knowledge, tactical and operational skill sets, and counterinsurgency mind set necessary to be effective in the modern asymmetric battlefield.

Download or read book Strategic assessment 2020 written by Thomas F. Lynch III and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: