Understanding Irregular Warfare and Its Impacts

The definition of irregular warfare has been debated for decades.

Even though we do irregular warfare, or IW, every day,

we continue to discuss its meaning.

In this video, we'll look into what irregular warfare is.

There are basically two types of warfare: conventional and

irregular. Conventional warfare is when a national government

openly uses its armed forces to fight the armed forces of another nation.

Irregular warfare can involve non-state actors like international criminal

networks and terrorists.

It often includes

indirect activities like supporting third-party fighters or undertaking

clandestine, covert, and non-attributable activities to

conceal who is doing what.

It can also be more asymmetric than conventional warfare since

it doesn't involve uniformed military forces on both sides.

Irregular warfare then is a form of warfare where state and

non-state actors campaign to assure or coerce states

or other interest groups through indirect,

non-attributable, or asymmetric activities,

either as the primary

approach or in concert with conventional warfare.

To put it another way, irregular warfare consists of activities

short of conventional warfare, but it can also complement and

enable conventional warfare. IW expands a

country's options for advancing its interests.

Russia seized Crimea in 2014 using non-attributable means.

In this case, out-of-uniform Russian SOF.

The Russian government denied any involvement,

so there Russia conducted a successful IW invasion

of Crimea.

The US immediately responded by providing security assistance to

Ukraine and has been using IW to counter Russia

ever since.

Specifically, the US has increased the effectiveness and

legitimacy of the Ukrainian government against Russian

aggression by providing training, advice, and

assistance.

When Russia launched a conventional invasion of Ukraine in 2022,

the US increased support, including weaponry and training,

but not direct combat by US troops.

The success of this IW approach can be seen in Ukraine's

conventional and IW victories against Russia.

So Russia and Ukraine are conducting conventional and

irregular warfare against each other, but the US is only

conducting irregular warfare against Russia.

Our definition of irregular warfare will continue to evolve,

but we can be sure the US will be deploying SOF in

many roles to reassure and strengthen our partners while

also deterring their enemies by increasing the costs

associated with attack.

We'd like to thank these people for their help on this video and

would encourage you to watch our in-depth discussion on this topic, which can

be found on our JSOU quarterly forum called The Fourth Age of

SOF.