Small Wars Journal

David Maxwell writes in his latest UPI article, “Winning without fighting: political warfare as America’s grand strategy,” that the United States possesses considerable national power but lacks a coherent framework for deploying it. Maxwell revives George Kennan’s 1948 concept of political warfare, defined as the coordinated use of all means short of war to achieve national objectives. Maxwell identifies four …
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The post The Missing Framework: How Political Warfare Can Restore American Strategic Coherence appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

In a timely piece for Foreign Affairs called “How to Fight an Economic War: A Field Manual for a Ruptured World,” Edward Fishman of the Council on Foreign Relations lays out a call to action. Economic warfare now defines great power competition. Success will hinge on disciplined use of chokepoints, selective defense of vulnerabilities, and sustained coordination with allies, since …
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The post Economic War Comes of Age | Foreign Affairs appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

ABSTRACT China’s growing role in Latin America is framed as more than routine geopolitical competition, instead resembling a form of “unrestricted warfare” that uses economic, technological, legal, and informational tools to reshape the regional strategic environment below the level of armed conflict. The article argues that while Latin American states retain agency, the United States’ main challenge is to provide …
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The post Unrestricted Warfare Without War: China’s Below-Threshold Strategy in Latin America appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Editor’s Note: this article is being republished with the permission of the Irregular Warfare Initiative as part of a republishing arrangement between IWI and SWJ. The original article was published on April 9, 2026 and is available here.  For more than two decades, U.S. national security policy has repeatedly relied on leadership decapitation as a mechanism for catalyzing systemic change. In practice, this …
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The post The Limits of Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Consequences of Overreliance on Military Force for Political Transformation appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. Pentagon details record $1.5 trillion budget request 2. Iran War Live Updates: Trump Extends Iran Cease-Fire With Peace Talks in Limbo 3. U.S., Iran Delay Talks in High-Stakes Game of Chicken 4. Opinion | A Quiet U.S. Favor for Xi Jinping 5. How America can fight back against enemy propaganda 6. China Doesn’t …
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The post 4/22/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

“Echoes of Little Bighorn: Insights for SOF Success,” by Christiane Thompson, Janetta Harris, Bernard Harris Jr., Raymond Powell, and Michael Hay, Joint Special Operations University Press, April 14, 2026. Check out this article from JSOU Press! The report uses the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, as a case study to examine enduring principles of irregular warfare …
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The post Little Bighorn and the Enduring Lessons of Irregular Warfare appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions. By Beatrice Heuser. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2025. ISBN-13: 9781509566709. pp. 208. $16.6. The decision-making process in national security can feel like looking through a kaleidoscope. Every time you look through the mirrored tube, things have changed: there are new shapes, colors, and perspectives to consider. There is little that feels certain, everything is …
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The post Book Review | Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Key Judgments With high confidence, the United States maintains world-leading cyber intelligence and offensive cyber capabilities through institutions such as the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command. With moderate confidence, fragmentation across military, intelligence, and civilian cybersecurity authorities complicates coordinated national response during cyber incidents, particularly when activity spans legal authorities such as Title 10, Title 50, and Title …
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The post Assessing US Cyber Power: Capabilities, Fragmentation, and the Challenge of Coordination appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

“Like the face of the moon, chaotic, crater-ridden, uninhabitable, awful, the abode of madness.”  That’s how Wilfred Owen described no man’s land, an image that frames popular memory. But that image obscures variation. Even in the First World War, trench warfare shifted across time and theater. Col. Kevin T. Black, Lt. Col. Tarik Fulcher and Capt. Joshua Ratta of the …
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The post Lessons From Ukraine’s Dead Zone | Modern War Institute appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. Opinion | In Iran, Winning Is the Only Thing 2. ‘Immediate Results’ vs. ‘The Long Game’: the U.S. and Iran Face Off 3. U.S. Has Turned Back 27 Ships Since Strait of Hormuz Blockade Started 4. Japan, Australia and a New Regional Order 5. Saudi Arabia and Iraq Are Caught in a …
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The post 4/21/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

In his latest article at War on the Rocks, “Winning in the Donbas: What Russia’s 2014–2015 Campaign Reveals About Modern War,” Dr. Amos Fox argues that Russia’s Donbas campaign in 2014 and 2015 stands as a masterclass in politically decisive ground combat. Fox is clear that his purpose is not to celebrate Russian military power or validate Putin’s conduct. Rather, …
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The post Back to Basics: What Russia’s Donbas Campaign Reveals About the Character of Modern War appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Abstract  The rapid expansion of open-source intelligence (OSINT), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and AI-enabled analytics has created a paradox within the U.S. intelligence enterprise. Unprecedented collection now risks degrading decision quality. Modern intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) environments generate massive data streams at speeds that outpace traditional analytical workflows, transforming collection advantage into decision paralysis. At the same time, the intelligence workforce remains structurally …
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The post Drowning In Data: Solving the data overload problem in OSINT appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

During the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, Russia’s military (RuAF) has suffered significant losses not seen since the Second World War. Amassing an estimated 1.3 million casualties, numerous Russian units have been reconstituted, with some units conducting restructuring multiple times, with the decimation of brigades and corps. Despite military reforms in 2008 and 2009, such as the organization of Motor Rifle …
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The post The Decimation of Russia’s Specialized Troops and its Effects on the Ukraine War appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that he might travel to Islamabad soon if Washington and Tehran succeed in reaching a peace deal. His remarks come after the marathon negotiations between top-level delegations from the two countries in Islamabad, amid a ceasefire that paused an intense weeks-long regional war. While those negotiations failed to deliver a breakthrough, can renewed diplomacy …
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The post From Ceasefire to Settlement? The Prospects of a U.S.–Iran Deal appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

REGISTER HERE. CISA’s Alumni Executive Board presents the next event, ” How to Get Your Work Published” moderated by Dr. Dayna Barnes. This hybrid event will take in Marshall Hall 155 at Ft. McNair and via Teams. Join us for a discussion on how to navigate the process to get your original ideas and work published in peer-reviewed academic journals. …
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The post WEBINAR ( 4/22/26): How to Get Your Work Published appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

The Iran war underscores a structural linkage between energy systems and armed conflict: disruptions to energy flows reshape strategic behavior, while energy dependencies influence the conduct and scope of war. Sara Schonhardt and Zack Colman of Politico report how interference in the Strait of Hormuz alters physical supply chains and forces immediate recalibration of state strategy in “‘We are not …
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The post “We are not going back”: The Conflict-Driven Energy Shift appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

A claimed intrusion into the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority offers a window into the evolving cyber contest surrounding Iran and U.S. critical infrastructure, reports Chris Teale in Defense One. The group calling itself Ababil of Minab publicized access to internal systems and framed the action through explicit pro-Iran messaging. Transit operations continued without disruption, yet the episode carries …
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The post Increased Attacks on Physical Infrastructure by Pro-Iran Hackers: Defense One appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

  Call for Chapters: Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict , Vol. 2 KeyPoint Press John P. Sullivan, Nathan P. Jones, and Daniel Weisz Argomedo, Editors 20 April 2028 KeyPoint  Press (KPP) announces a call for chapters for Volume 2 of the critically acclaimed   Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict .[1] Urban Operations, Vol. 2  recognizes the topic’s scale and …
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The post Call for Chapters: “Urban Operations: War, Crime, and Conflict , Vol. 2” appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1 From Hormuz to the South China Sea: A warning we must heed 2. Can U.S. Blockade Iranian-Linked Ships Anywhere in the World? Yes, But … 3. US seizes Iranian cargo ship, Tehran says it will retaliate 4. In the AI propaganda war, Iran is winning 5. The …
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The post 4/20/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Guy McCardle’s “Discover the Secret World of CIA’s Elite Paramilitary Operatives,” published on SOFREP, pulls back the curtain on the CIA’s Special Activities Center (SAC) and its role as the principal instrument of American covert action abroad. The SAC traces its lineage directly to the OSS, inheriting the doctrine of sabotage, subversion, and intelligence collection behind enemy lines that shaped …
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The post The Third Option: How the CIA’s Paramilitary Arm Shapes the Battlefield appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.