Irregular Warfare: Everything yet Nothing

SMALL WARS JOURNAL

smallwarsjournal.com

By SWJ Editors

Irregular Warfare: Everything yet Nothing

by Lieutenant Colonel (P) William Stevenson, Major Marshall Ecklund, Major
Hun Soo Kim and Major Robert Billings, Small Wars Journal

Irregular Warfare: Everything yet Nothing (Full PDF Article)
http://smallwarsjournal.com/mag/docs-temp/150-stevenson.pdf

September 11, 2001 the Global War on Terror began. This global war has
brought to life a timeless tactic called irregular warfare (IW). IW is
difficult to define, explain, and employ. Yet, with no firm understanding or
consensus on what IW actually means, the Department of Defense (DoD)
developed the Irregular Warfare (IW) Joint Operating Concept (JOC) on 11
September 2007. Version 1.0 of the IW JOC proposes that IW is a protracted

form of warfare, on a global or regional scale, that will require new
capability development. Fortunately, for the Joint Warfighter, the intent of
the IW JOC was only to further IW discussion, debate, and experimentation
intended to influence future IW concepts and capability development. As
presented, the definitions and concepts in the IW JOC have unnecessarily
created confusion within the DoD by ignoring more than fifty years of
experience and doctrine related to the challenges faced by the post-Cold War
world and after the events of September 11, 2001.

The history of IW needs closer examination to capture those lessons learned
to advance the IW discussion beyond the IW JOC. Given the significance and
long-term DoD investments in the concepts presented in the IW JOC, this
paper will analyze whether DoD has presented an appropriate definition of IW
based on a doctrinal review of IW’s roots. The paper will also look at the
doctrinal relationship between Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) and IW. If
necessary, the authors will propose a more fitting definition for IW that is
aligned with its doctrinal characterization.

Irregular Warfare: Everything yet Nothing (Full PDF Article)

By SWJ Editors on December 16, 2008 4:51 PM
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