Irregular Warfare Club

As anyone who has a niche hobby knows, there are entire communities of people who share a common passion for their favorite pastime, often known only to those who share that common interest.  They meet in and out of work, join social media groups, create chatrooms to collaborate, and take to the skies to fly around the world for a chance to experience the magic of being with others who share similar interests. Those with a passion for Irregular Warfare (IW) are no different. There is an entire community, a club if you will, comprised mostly of Americans, Europeans, and Australians, that thinks, teaches, debates, writes doctrine, shares experiences with others, advocates for policy, publishes articles, puts ideas into practice on the ground, and dreams about Irregular Warfare when they go to sleep at night.  Their objective is to find new and creative ways to advance national, regional, and global security initiatives through non-traditional means. Welcome to a glimpse into the Irregular Warfare Club.

What happens in Irregular Warfare Club unfortunately stays in Irregular Warfare Club.

While there is no secret handshake yet, club members are familiar with most of the other members.  Some key institutional members of the American chapter of the club include US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and its subordinate organizations (such as Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOC) and service component special operations elements), Joint Special Operations University (JSOU – which is actually part of USSOCOM), Fort Bragg (numerous organizations), Arizona State University, the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC), the office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASW SO/LIC), a small part of National Defense University’s (NDU) College of International Security Affairs (CISA), the Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI), and the Special Operations Forces (SOF) community more broadly.  As for individuals in the IW Club, those who are unusually passionate about it, those who live and breathe it, those who think of IW not just as a means to a paycheck, those who wake up at 2 am with a new idea about it, day after day, year after year, decade after decade in some cases – there aren’t many of them.  The total is about 150, give or take some number, according to the author’s opinion and a non-scientific best guess.

While there are hundreds of discussion topics involving IW, there are a few enduring themes. The list below is not exhaustive, but it’s a good start:

1. What is the definition of IW? Also, related definitional debates involving Unconventional Warfare (UW), hybrid conflict, asymmetric conflict, 4th generation warfare, guerrilla warfare, and political warfare, among others.
2. What supporting activities should be included under the big umbrella concept of “Irregular Warfare?”
3. Models that attempt to capture IW with easy-to-understand graphics.
4. Who should be “in charge” of IW? Proposed task organizations (and re-organizations) for effectively “doing” IW.
5. The idea that an actor doesn’t “do” Irregular Warfare. IW is instead a condition or state.
6. Who should execute IW? IW is often perceived as a “SOF thing.” How do we get organizations, particularly those in the military that fall outside of the SOF community, to embrace it?
7. IW is bigger than just the military. The military should be in a supporting role.
8. IW should be about more than just taking action, but about gaining a true understanding of the environment before taking action (this argument, of course, applies to all forms of warfare, not just IW).
9. How can we deter our adversaries’ malign use of IW (or gray zone tactics, hybrid warfare, etc.)?
10. What does IW look like when we collaborate with foreign partners and allies? While the term is used quite freely, many of our friends around the world understand it to mean Counterterrorism (CT) and/or Counterinsurgency (COIN).

The IW Clubhouse is, unfortunately, somewhat of an echo chamber. Most club members read what other club members write about, with few outsiders taking notice. Members go to find literature on IW in a very small number of places that routinely publish work on the subject (this article is no exception). Members see other members at conferences and symposiums, with few non-members showing up or knowing the events exist. For practitioners of IW—the club members operating “where the rubber meets the road,” in the field, in embassies around the world, alongside partners and allies—there are few non-members who know what is happening there.

The exception to the members-only theme is when an IW Club member gets an opportunity to try and influence a key leader, maybe an important military Flag Officer or member of Congress. The club member hopes to get them to appreciate how unappreciated Irregular Warfare is, why it’s relevant, or how it contributes to current, conventional national security objectives.  These efforts take place during targets of opportunity when members are given a chance to share thoughts with non-members. For the members in the club, however, we know the unfortunate truth: despite our best efforts to inform others about the opportunities and advantages that Irregular Warfare brings to the geopolitical landscape, few non-members are interested.

Irregular Warfare can yield big payoffs but requires a slow, steady burn. Competing priorities, big tech programs, and more traditional security initiatives tend to push IW to the background because it doesn’t generate a fast jackpot. As a result, what happens in Irregular Warfare Club unfortunately stays in Irregular Warfare Club. So, for those reading this article who don’t consider themselves card-carrying members, or perhaps didn’t even know that the club exists, welcome to a peek inside the clubhouse. We hope you stay.