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Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare

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11.23.2009 at 02:29pm

Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare

by Major David J. Painter, Major Mark C. Weaver and Major Scott C. White.

Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare is a master’s thesis to be published next month by the Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) program at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Thesis Abstract:

A thorough understanding of Irregular Warfare (IW) and the principles of organizational theory and design will enable the Department of Defense (DoD) to organize efficiently and effectively for operations within the IW Environment, while maintaining its conventional capabilities. We develop our argument for this thesis in several stages. First, we define irregular warfare and differentiate it from conventional warfare through the development of our critical success factors. We introduce organizational theory and design in order to incorporate the critical success factors. We conclude that the DoD should reorganize certain elements of the U.S. Special Operations Command by incorporating existing capabilities, focusing on conducting operations within the IW Environment, and implementing our critical success factors.

Download the full thesis: Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare

The authors would like to thank the U.S. Special Operations Command for allowing us to further our professional education within our respective career fields. We would also like to thank the staff of Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, for their mentorship throughout the writing of this thesis. Finally, we thank Dr. Hy Rothstein and Dr. Eric Jansen for their instruction and guidance as we addressed the complexity of Irregular Warfare in this thesis.

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