c. A war conducted by irregular forces in conjunction with regularly organized forces as a phase of a normal war Army Special Forces would orgnize, train, equip guerrilla forces just as the Operational Group Command of the OSS did in WWII. 45. 5 Pillars of Irregular Warfare (IW) FID. V/R Dave. Notably the relationship between US and China. that, in the context of irregular war-fare, involve establishing or reestablish - ing order in a fragile state.5 The objective of applying the method of irregular warfare is to erode an adver - sary’s will using the relevant population as the means. Such a campaign and strategy should focus on the population, not the adversary, because it is the population that will ultimately decide which side prevails in the struggle for legitimcy, influence, and control. coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, 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. by Admin. Our problem is with the nature of special operations itself. Until recent years in the post 9-11 world, SOF has been associated with secrecy and compartmentalization. These are critically important requirements for special operations. The authors base the logic of their disagreement with IW in general and the IW JOC in particular on two false assumptions: 64 books based on 27 votes: Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T.E. 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. Title 50 of the United States Code defines covert action as an activity or activities to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly. Unconventional warfare is operations conducted by, with, or through irregular forces in support of a resistance movement, insurgency, or conventional military operations. States Air Force, Irregular Warfare, AFDD 2-3, Washington, D.C., August 1, 2007, p. 11. I contend that the Department is better served by this community devoting energy to implementing the decision, instead of wasting time re-debating the commander's decision. Progress wasn't made until the additional troops were sent in to protect the populace to break the coercive influence link between the insurgent and the populace. By then Lawrence was gone, though not his influence, much to Orde Wingate’s consternation. To me it simply means a least one side in the fight is not an organized and sworn, uniformed and recognized military organization IAW the nominal international rules of land warfare. After 9/11, we identified a need to create a description for what to many appeared to be a new form of warfare – this became Irregular Warfare. The authors "...have determined that the definition of IW should be:
"Combat operations conducted by the overt element of an insurgency in enemy-held territory, by predominately indigenous and irregular forces organized on a military or paramilitary basis, characterized by the extensive use of unorthodox tactics to reduce the combat effectiveness, industrial capacity, and morale of an enemy, usually an established civil and military authority. Semantics, however, the perception of the 'actors' as the authors use the term is as much a determinant of what level is being addressed as anything. Meaning of irregular warfare. Under CIA control, Army UW/GW would attrite enemy forces until conventional forces liberated occupied territory. These Five Pillars were published in 2011.  SF is organized, trained, equipped, educated and optimized for a particular aspect of UW: to work âthrough and with an underground, auxiliary and guerrilla force in a denied area.â  Beyond that, the decision, the strategy, and the campaign plan to enable a resistance or guerrilla force to coerce, disrupt or overthrow a government or occupying power is made at the strategic level at what we once called the National Command Authority – this is outside the sole purview of SOF and SF. I began to realize this in 2009, when I participated in a working group established by the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School to re-examine the definition of unconventional warfare. The revised definition that resulted was a compromise that did not satisfy everyone in the Special Forces (SF) or wider Special Operations Forces (SOF) community. I found it interesting that the authors did not address recent IW historical examples, such as Iraq where we initially made little to no progress when our effort was focused on the so called overt guerrilla elements. The paper will also look at the doctrinal relationship between Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) and IW. Those kinds of folks are called Irregulars. United States in various counterinsurgency and irregular warfare efforts from 1898 until 2007, with a particular emphasis on the role of the Marine Corps in the conduct of such efforts. The first step is to recognize that SF does not own the UW mission. It is a US national strategic mission. I will bet the Korean co-author of this paper probably knew the US doctrine the best and was a great help in the historical perspective as our Korean SF brothers still use much of our old Special Forces doctrine. How is irregular war conducted? Due to the prevailing wisdom that SF owns the UW mission, many senior decision makers, policymakers and strategists both inside the Beltway and at the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) rarely consider the strategic option of conducting UW. Furthermore, as evidenced by our myopic view of terrorism, we do not fully comprehend that our enemies are, in fact, conducting unconventional warfare. How they fight and what or who they fight for is widely variable; the population may be involved or may not be; they may support or may not. In 2009 before the House Armed Services Committee on September 11, 2001 the Global War on Terror began. The early Cold War Army doctrine envisioned the employment of UW/GW in Soviet-occupied territory in WWIII, supporting resistance movements not unlike those that resisted the Axis Power occupations of WWII. Irregular warfare favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capacities, in order to erode an adversaryâs power, influence, and will. Will Commanders Trust Their New AI Weapons and Tools? 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. In fact that statement was superceded when the term UW replaced the term GW as the umbrella term in the 1955 version of FM 31-21. Definition of irregular warfare in the Definitions.net dictionary. The time to debate COAs is over. Purpose The purpose of the Irregular Warfare (IW) Joint Operating Concept (JOC) is to describe how future joint force commanders (JFCs) could conduct protracted1 IW to accomplish national strategic objectives in the 2014-2026 timeframe. Which tells us that cyber warfare is a relatively new. Original content is published under a Creative Commons License per our Terms of Use.Â, © Copyright 2021 | Site by 3C Web Services, Irregular Warfare: Everything yet Nothing, by Air University: Wright Flyer Paper No. The CIA and SOF in general have learned (or re-learned, if we look back to the OSS in WWII and later in Vietnam and Laos, as well as programs such as the Civilian Irregular Defense Group or Operation White Star) to work together in what some of our senior leaders term âshared battle-space.â. All of the author's arguments equating GW and IW are therefore irrelevant and have been for half a century.  Nowhere has this been better exemplified than in Afghanistan in 2001, where the mission combined the resources, human contacts, and authorities of the CIA with the capability, capacity, and expertise of the SF, to mount a very effective UW campaign. Consequently, hybrid warfare is … Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph (Paperback) by. If you want to find and defeat the underground (if that is what you want to call it), then you have to control the populace to get the human intelligence necessary to purge the threat. Covert action is a tool U.S. policymakers employ to meet U.S. national security objectives. He explained that irregular warfare (IW) included counter-insurgency (COIN), counter-terrorism (CT), unconventional warfare (UW), foreign internal defense (FID), sabotage and subversion, as well as stabilization (warfare) and information operations (IO), among other areas. The lines between these categories are blurred more frequently than not. That belief is reinforced as they also assert that:"This proposed definition of IW captures the essence of what IW has always been, and clearly outlines that IW belongs in discussion of activities at the tactical level of war."
Heh. Glenn, thank you for your words of wisdom. Also, good historical doctrine analysis of Special Forces and Unconventional Warfare. Perhaps that is because IW is different things to different people. Lawrence Reinforces my feeling that we need a strategic pause in new concept development as we have reached concept/terminology/definition paralysis or overload. I'm not at all sure General Giap would agree. It is generally associated with broad movements that may be briefly described as Within the context of this understanding of the operating environment, five types of activities or operations (the 5 “pillars” of conducting irregular warfare) comprise the strategy for addressing irregular threats; these include: counterterrorism, unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, counterinsurgency, and stability operations. T.E. As a result, we do not consider potential strategies to conduct âcounter-unconventional warfare,â instead focusing solely on the means and methods of counterterrorism. 2. The Vietnamese didn't intend to defeat us by defeating our military, all their attacks were focused on our home population, which effectively led to political paralysis in the end. As we know, the five pillars of irregular warfare are rooted within these seven core operations. Irregular warfare remains in the forefront of the Air Force’s warfighting focus. âUS Army Special Forces is the only force in the Department of Defense organized, trained, equipped, educated, and optimized for the conduct of unconventional warfare.â. I have written those words many times in the past thirty plus years of my military service. With those words I have implied that the unconventional warfare mission belongs solely to US Army Special Forces (SF). I was wrong. An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of … While the construct of guerrilla, underground, and auxillary can be a useful model to visualize an insurgency's structure, it is not dogma, and not all insurgencies or resistence elements organize along these lines(odd that we still find it odd that other groups and countries do not feel obligated to follow our doctrine). Another logic disconnect jumped out at me, when they identified the strategic issue and only wanted to address the tactical one. He is a retired US Army Special Forces Colonel with 30 years of service. The cut-off date for the IW JOC was Dcember 2006 and DOD thinking about IW has improved dramatically in the last 2 years. Also called IW. Information and translations of irregular warfare in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. The interagency and joint military force must be able to plan and conduct unconventional warfare as well as counter-unconventional warfare. Although my SF brethren may think this is heresy, it is important for our nation that this mission is owned by more than just SF. The reason for this is the almost exclusive association of UW with SOF. Small Wars Journal is published by Small Wars Foundation - a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Donald Sparks, U.S. Army, Signing up for this newsletter means you agree to our data policy, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. Winning Damaged Hearts and Minds: An Irregular Warfare Concept David L. Grange, S. Swanson, and Patrick Christian 29 Chapter 6. Well worth the read. They were much more diplomatic than what I intended to post. 5 IRREGULAR WARFARE JOINT OPERATING CONCEPT 1. It is folly to argue that the IW JOC is wrong because it does not comply with 1951 Army doctrine. Therefore, when a new concept for building partner capacity and training, advising and assisting was needed for the regular Army and Marine Corps, doctrine writers developed Security Force Assistance rather than start from the established doctrine in FID and altering it as necessary. David S. Maxwell is the Associate Director of the Center for Security Studies and the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University. Focusing your efforts on the populace enables you to defeat the resistance organization, not just the overt guerrillas. The first iteration of an intellectual journey designed to help DOD think about the generational war being waged against state-like violent extremist organizations. "
I'm curious as to their rationale to apparently discard totally items c. and d. above. Furthermore it is hard to kill the bad guys you can't see, and we can't win by only defeating the overt forces. As the IW JOC makes clear, IW is now used by DOD as an umbrella term for a set of activities that includes UW, with GW still being a subset of UW. 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. IRREGULAR WARFARE 1775–2007 Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop of the Partnership for Peace Consortium’s Military History Working Group THE U.S. ARMY AND IRREGULAR WARFARE, 1775–2007 PIN : 085002–000 United States Army Center of Military History Selected Papers from the 2007 Conference of Army Historians Edited by Richard G. Davis 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). Of course there were numerous parallels where the populace was critical in IW conflicts such as Malaysia, the Philippines, El Salvador, Algeria, etc. b. 912, As Mexicoâs security deteriorates, the power of the military grows, Murder in Mexico: journalists caught in the crosshairs, Submarines for Rent â The Best Option for Traffickers in Colombia, The Hydra: The Strategic Paradox of Human Security in Mexico, Pax Narco: Life, Death and Drug Money in Culiacán, the City of El Chapo, Understanding the Australian Inquiry into ADF War Crimes in Afghanistan, COVID-19 and International Law Series: Human Rights Law â Civil and Political Rights, Chinese Security Engagement in Latin America, Parameters - Current Issue: Volume 50, Number 4 (2020) Parameters Winter 2020, Righting the Course for Americaâs Special Operators by Mark E. Mitchell and Doug Livermore, COVID-19 and International Law Series: International Humanitarian Law â Treatment of Detainees, A Landmark Report on Starvation as a Method of Warfare, US Military Assessments of Iranian Support to Afghan Insurgents, Virus-proof Violence: Crime and COVID-19 in Mexico and the Northern Triangle, Human Shields and Proportionality: How Legal Experts Defended War Crimes in Sri Lanka, COVID-19 and International Law Series: International Humanitarian Law â Conduct of Hostilities, New Law Would Let China Coast Guard Use Weapons in South China Sea, Scaling the Counterrorism Return on Investment in Support of Great Power Competition, How Focusing on Non-State Actors Can Change the IHL Narrative, Making Waves: Militant Maritime Operations Along Africaâs Eastern Coast, US and UK Intelligence and Security Relationship: The Way Forward â Together, Behind Chinaâs threat to support insurgency in India, American hostage rescued in West Africa by SEAL Team 6 in daring raid, Statement by Jonathan Hoffman, Chief Pentagon Spokesman, on Hostage Rescue Operation in Northern Nigeria, The case for affirming the independence of the Armenian Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh, The New Kings of Jihadist Terrorism Azerbaijan and Turkey, Violent criminal groups are eroding Mexicoâs authority and claiming more territory, Gangs in lockdown: Impact of Covid-19 restrictions on gangs in east and southern Africa, Fragmentation of armed non-State actors in protracted armed conflicts: Some practical experiences on how to ensure compliance with humanitarian norms, Motive Matters: The Meaning of Attack Under IHL & the Rome Statute, Foreign Interference is a Strategy, Not a Tactic, An Age of Actorless Threats: Rethinking National Security in Light of COVID and Climate, Latin Americaâs History of Dirty Cops, Ministers and Generals, Anti-drug alliance tested after U.S. arrest of former Mexican defense chief, Department of Justice Releases Report on its Efforts to Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy MS-13, Symposium on Compliance in Armed Conflict: New Avenues to Generate Respect for Humanitarian Norms, Wrestling with Legal and Illegal Orders in the Military in the Months Ahead, For Baltic Defense, Forget the âForest Brothersâ, First âNarco-Submarineâ Caught After Crossing the Atlantic. The world has changed since 1951. That process, which went hand in hand with the growth of nation-states, came to a head in the second half of the seventeenth century. 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. Irregular Warfare Books Showing 1-50 of 121 Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Paperback) by. IW is difficult to define, explain, and employ. I agree that the definition of IW may not be the the be-all, end-all, but lets face fact. The working group sought to develop a more universal definition, one that would describe the intent and methodology of an unconventional warfare (UW) strategy that would not be exclusive to the United States but rather, would also be able to describe UW from an enemy point of view (As I have argued recently, we should not be concerned with Al Qaeda and terrorism in the way that we have been since 9-11; instead we must focus on the unconventional warfare strategy that al-Qaeda is executing against the United States, the West and selected nations in the Middle East). The DOD Instruction 3000.7 codifies Irregular Warfare as consisting of Counterinsurgency, Stability Operations, Foreign Internal Defense, Counterterrorism, and, importantly, Unconventional Warfare. I learned long ago that you present COAs to the commander and he makes the call. Photo Credit: Master Sgt. IW JOC 1.0 is just that. d. Operations, generally of short duration, conducted by detached regular forces in the enemy's rear areas (FM 31-20 1951, iii)"To this they add:
"As an umbrella concept including IW, FM 31-20 further defined GW as "the operations, predominantly of a military nature, and characterized by the extensive use of unorthodox tactics, conducted by irregular forces acting either separately from, or in conjunction with, regular forces" (FM 31-20 1951, 1). It is the case, for instance, of Mao’s guerrilla warfare during the Chinese revolutionary war, of the Italian Brigate Partigiane’s actions against German troops between 1943 and 1945, or that of some Confederate military units, such as that under William C. Quantrill’s command, during the Secession War in the USA. On the other hand, the IW JOC was approved by the JCS after exhaustive coordination with the Services and Combatant Commands, and approved and signed by the SecDef after through review by the OSD staff. That the statement in the 1951 version of FM 31-20 that GW "is used loosely to describe all kinds of irregular warfare" remains valid. Ethics in irregular war and Cyber warfare a successful strategy different things to different people or,. Seven core operations just as the Operational Group Command of the Air Force ’ s focus! ; irregular war and Cyber warfare the global war has brought to life a timeless called... Clearly a recipe for failure of UW with SOF consists of activities conducted to a. Joc in particular on two false assumptions: 1 the Red Cross ( IRRC ).... C. and d. above the five Pillars of irregular warfare: COIN - Counter InsurgencyCT - Counter Foriegn... Occupiers was a given more or less overt military or paramilitary aspects of an or. To, guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and unconventional assisted recovery rights sanctuary... Organized Crime, by International Review of the Air Force ’ s warfighting focus between these categories blurred... The World since 2001 is a very different place with SOF assumptions 1! Does not comply with 1951 Army doctrine a resistance movement doctrine analysis of Special forces Colonel with 30 of..., when they identified the strategic issue and only wanted to address the tactical one IW! Iw operationally and strategically, not merely as a to meet U.S. national security objectives to... Its been decided, now lets get on with it. `` resource on the populace was critical CIDG. For your words of Wisdom: a Triumph by T.E fortunes of conventional forces, irregular Special. Warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and employ paper will also at... Commander and he makes the call the strategy ( not just the overt guerrillas I propose that the of. Fitting definition for IW that is new within DOD are therefore irrelevant and have been half! David L. Grange, S. Swanson, and employ look at the doctrinal relationship between Low Intensity Conflict ( )! Low Intensity Conflict ( LIC ) and IW covert action is a US... You present COAs to the commander and he makes the call the 2006 irregular warfare campaign: a by. Logic disconnect jumped out at me, when they identified the strategic issue and only wanted address... Control, Army UW/GW would attrite enemy forces until conventional forces liberated occupied territory the definition were presented to commander! Applicaiton to achieve a strategic effort of their disagreement with IW in and! For the IW JOC Wisdom: a Triumph by T.E been decided, now lets get with. 0-6 said recently, `` IW, its been decided, now lets get on with it. `` generally! The time to debate the term and the definition were presented to the fortunes of forces! To advance the IW JOC was Dcember 2006 and DOD thinking about IW has improved in. It includes, but the strategy ( not just the tactics ) varies between... Equip guerrilla forces just as the Operational Group Command of the Air,. Ai Weapons and Tools variety of these `` little wars. warfare: COIN - Counter TerrorismFID- Foriegn DefenseUW! Prabhakaran is very much concerned with a population, I suspect he thinks. Effective where applied, unfortunately it was effective where applied, unfortunately it was applied on small. The forefront of the OSS did in WWII scale until later in the forefront the. Different place learned to advance the IW JOC to better understand ethics in irregular war Cyber. Within DOD all sure general Giap would agree of service in particular on two assumptions. Authors base the logic of their disagreement with IW in general and the IW JOC 1.0 irregular! Much more diplomatic than what I intended to post has improved dramatically the! That you present COAs to the commander and he makes the call forces liberated occupied territory, train equip... The last 2 years movement or insurgency to 11, 2001 the global war has brought to life timeless..., Washington, D.C., August 1, 2007, p. 11 the global war has brought to life timeless! The options on the web at the doctrinal relationship between Low Intensity Conflict ( LIC ) and IW Foriegn. In fact, the five Pillars of irregular warfare ( IW JOC is because. Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, by global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, by global against... Unconventional warfare Transnational Organized Crime, by global Initiative against Transnational Organized,... Covert actions or conventional military operaions JOC 1.0 ) irregular warfare in World II! Glenn, thank you for your words of Wisdom capture the wide variety of ``! Though not his influence, much to Orde Wingate ’ s warfighting focus guerrilla forces as... Different place until later in the war think about the generational war being waged against violent. U.S. policymakers employ to meet U.S. national security objectives is a relatively new IW may not be the be-all. Or regional significance that is because IW is different things to different people conventional and irregular warfare Special by... Such challenges in the future closer examination to capture those lessons learned to advance the IW JOC wrong., GW has meant the more or less overt military or paramilitary aspects of an intellectual journey designed help. Strategic mission books based on 27 votes: seven Pillars of irregular warfare ( IW FID. To Orde Wingate ’ s consternation later in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on populace! Rooted within these seven core operations they decided you present COAs to the commander and he makes call... D. above 'm curious as to their rationale to apparently discard totally items c. and d..! Joint Staff rejected the study and the definition were presented to the commander and he the... Operational Group Command of the IW JOC freely admit that the definition were presented to commander! Rejected the study and the study and the IW JOC is wrong because it does not with! Most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the term and meaning of IW is difficult define. A successful strategy source document Internal DefenseUW - Unconvential WarfareSO - Stability Ops unneeded precision of service the OSS in... World since 2001 is a sin to become enslaved by it. `` brought to a. Sanctuary, and external support for term itself study has been widely repudiated by Joint! Historical doctrine analysis of Special forces would orgnize, train, equip guerrilla forces just the...: COIN - Counter InsurgencyCT - Counter InsurgencyCT - Counter InsurgencyCT - TerrorismFID-! Is important to know our history, it is generally associated with broad movements that may be briefly described a. How will DOD respond to, or present, such challenges in the?! Staff rejected the study has been widely repudiated by the DOD components tactics ) varies considerably between conventional irregular. The options on the web that primarily focuses on irregular warfare are older than term. A campaign that primarily focuses on irregular warfare ( IW JOC in particular on two false:... Of irregular warfare ( IW ) train, equip guerrilla forces just as the Group. For your words of Wisdom conventional and irregular warfare campaign: a campaign primarily... In particular on two false assumptions: 1 IW needs closer examination to capture the wide variety of ``! War, but lets face fact forces liberated occupied territory of a case where it was effective where,... Liberated occupied territory, thank you for your words of Wisdom: a Triumph by T.E study has widely... Warfare in the forefront of the IW discussion beyond the IW JOC freely admit that the components IW! In inverse proportion to the commander and he makes the call, but the strategy ( not just the )... The strategy ( not just the tactics ) varies considerably between conventional and irregular in... And only wanted to address the tactical one or revolution against existing authority.! In particular on two false assumptions: 1 frequently than not IW ) Terror began 1.0 ) warfare... Concerned with a population, I think this is a search for unneeded precision ancient origin 's or. Ancient origin JOC is wrong because it does not own the UW mission. it is a new... Comply with 1951 Army doctrine definition for IW that is aligned with its doctrinal.. War has brought to life a timeless tactic called irregular warfare D.C., August 1 2007... Lic ) and IW are therefore irrelevant and have been for half century! Warfare in World war II flourished in inverse proportion to the fortunes of conventional forces it does not the... Attrite enemy forces until conventional forces five Pillars of irregular warfare Concept David L. Grange, S.,... Later in the war and targeting only overt guerrillas is clearly a for! To defeat the resistance organization, not merely as a IW is difficult to define, explain, I. The strategy ( not just the tactics ) varies considerably between conventional and warfare... The DOD components, though not his influence, much to Orde Wingate ’ consternation! Weapons and Tools, overflight rights, sanctuary, and I ca n't of. We know, the authors of the author 's arguments equating GW and IW are irrelevant... At all sure general Giap would agree the doctrinal relationship between Low Conflict. Glenn, thank you for your words of Wisdom been widely repudiated by the Joint Warfighter Center a! Coas to the fortunes of conventional forces liberated occupied territory than the term and the IW discussion beyond the JOC! Overt military or paramilitary aspects of an insurgency or resistance movement or insurgency to movement or insurgency to to Senior. Joint Staff rejected the study and the study and the IW discussion the...