Browse Small Wars Journal by Topic
Small Wars Journal covers the full spectrum of irregular warfare, military strategy, special operations, emerging conflict domains, and national security practice. Use the topics below to navigate our archive by subject area.
Irregular Warfare
The full spectrum of operations below and alongside conventional war.
Insurgency, counterinsurgency, proxy warfare, hybrid conflict, terrorism, lawfare, non-state actors.
Special Operations
SOF doctrine, employment, and practitioner analysis.
SOF, direct action, civil affairs, psychological operations, unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism.
Military Strategy and Doctrine
Strategic theory, doctrine development, and national defense policy.
Strategy, doctrine, national security strategy, force structure, national defense strategy, force design.
Future of War
Emerging conflict trends, technology, and speculative analysis.
Emerging technology, innovation, character of war, useful fiction, Horizon 2040.
Professional Military Education
PME research, curriculum, and practitioner-scholar dialogue.
PME, CGSC, Army University, JSOU, Joint Professional Military Education, military leadership.
Domains of Warfare
Nine operational domains — cross-cutting classification across all SWJ content.
Land, maritime, air, space, cyber, information, cognitive, human domain, electromagnetic spectrum.
Regional and Theater Security
Regional conflict, theater strategy, and security dynamics by geography.
Middle East, Indo-Pacific, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, Russia-Ukraine, South Asia, Arctic, El Centro.
Drone / AI
Unmanned systems, autonomy, and military artificial intelligence.
Drones, drone warfare, unmanned systems, autonomy, counter-UAS, military AI.
Featured Across Topics
Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 40: South African and Nigerian Meth Labs and Global Expansion
Recent incidents have demonstrated increasing expansion of Mexican cartels into Africa. Specific incidents involving clandestine methamphetamine (meth) in South Africa and…
The End of Uncontested ISR: Why US Special Operations must rediscover Special Reconnaissance
Abstract During the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), the United States has operated in an environment characterized by persistent, uncontested intelligence, surveillance,…
Sovereign Shield, Alliance Sword: Evolving NATO’s Strategic Communications Doctrine for Cognitive Warfare
Abstract Cognitive warfare is routinely described as something a state does, or as a new name for propaganda, disinformation, Strategic Communications, or…
Train, Advise, Assist: Mapping a Crowded Conceptual Field
Abstract Several concepts pertain to the phenomenon of training, advising and assisting foreign armed forces or non-state actors. The plethora of terms…
About SWJ Topics
SWJ's topic framework organizes our archive by the primary subject area of each article. Topics are assigned by SWJ editors and reflect the professional and doctrinal categories most meaningful to practitioners, scholars, and policy professionals.
Each topic page surfaces the full archive of relevant SWJ content, including republished material from the Irregular Warfare Initiative and partner institutions.