Irregular Warfare (Video from Army University Press)
Access HERE.
Led by Rich Creed (US Army TRADOC), including Rich Tilley (DOD), BG Beaupere (SF), LTC Stephen Bolton (SF), John Nagl (US Army War College). Martijn Kitzen (Netherlands).
An important 25 minute video everyone should watch this weekend and then discuss.
This provides the best discussion between the Army and Joint definitions of Irregular Warfare.
This covers a lot of ground. I am pleased to see the recognition that IW takes place before, during and after LSCO and on the periphery as well.
They really seem to be making the case that the Gray Zone, and strategic competition is IW and that IW contributes to strategic deterrence. Although they are making the argument about shaping for decisive operations they (and specifically BG Beaupere) recognize that a successful IW campaign does not have to lead to and can actually prevent war or be successful (achieve strategic
Rich Tilley - range of options.
All emphasize campaigning in IW (although PME and training is discussed no one describes how to develop IW proficient campaign HQ. - but this is only a 25 minute video so they cannot cover everything).
My one criticism is that we are using IW in paces of the Joint Concept for Competing (ACCESS HERE at Small Wars Journal) which is really an excellent joint document to describe what the joint force does in strategic competition but unfortunately has never caught on
Rich Creed - the most likely form of conflict the Army is going to be asked to do.
(Lastly I would add that here is the buried lede - there is no national concept for strategic competition - they all emphasize that IW cannot be conducted alone and that it has to be part of a larger interagency effort. That is why I argue that strategic competition is political warfare and that IW is the military contribution to political warfare. While the military has been working hard on developing concepts to support strategic competition the rest of the US government has not).