Small Wars Journal

“Modern Warfare and Risk,” by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew van der Graaff, Special Warfare Journal, January 22, 2026. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew van der Graaff examines how institutional risk aversion shaped by the Global War on Terror undermines Special Operations effectiveness in future large-scale combat operations. He argues that persistent oversight and centralized control degraded subordinate decision-making and …
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Barrio 18 gang attacks in Guatemala expose government impotence in the face of organized crime By: Bryan Avelar for El Pais | Guatemala City – JAN 22, 2026 – 06:20 EST Strategic Shock and Visible Normalcy The article opens with a sharp contradiction. Barrio 18 murders ten police officers across Guatemala, triggers a national state of emergency, and yet daily life in …
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 President Trump’s address offers a direct look into his national security doctrine and foreign policy perspectives. He presents a vision where robust economic prosperity, marked by low inflation and high growth, serves as the essential bedrock for a powerful and capable military. The speech includes critiques of past administrations’ policies, particularly regarding energy and immigration, which he claims weakened the …
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Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. The West Stepped Back From the Brink. But Europe’s Distrust of America Lingers. 2. China Sees a Chance to Lure Jaded U.S. Allies 3. Opinion | Why Putin Was Rooting for a U.S. Invasion of Greenland 4. The Arctic Smokescreen: The most dangerous mistake about “Greenland  is believing it is about …
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The Council on Geostrategy has just published Britain’s world: The strategy of security in twelve geopolitical maps, a geopolitical atlas designed to complement the UK’s National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defense Review. The atlas includes 12 visualizations to explain the United Kingdom’s position and interests in the mid-21st century. The illustrations include: The national powerbase, National output, Global Britain, …
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How could Mexico’s drug cartels respond to US military actions? By: Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown (SWJ El Centro Fellow) | January 22, 2026 SWJ Commentary: The most pertinent part for the US is this: How could the cartels retaliate? Overview of the Piece: Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown’s commentary for the Brookings Institution examines the escalating pressure from the United States for military …
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Abstract: Modern conflict unfolds in an environment no longer covered in secrecy. In a new era of unprecedented transparency, publicly available information often shapes operations faster than classified intelligence. Drawing on lessons from Ukraine, this article argues that United States (U.S.) Special Operations must treat open-source intelligence (OSINT) as a primary discipline and reform organizational structures to enable faster decision-making. …
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Graduates of the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) have a well-earned reputation as skilled planners. However, the mission of SAMS, the U.S. Army’s premier institution for warfighter education, is not to produce planning specialists. A rigorous education in history, theory, doctrine, and the practical application thereof, makes SAMS graduates integral to operational and strategic planning staffs. Their success as …
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With the outbreak of war in 2022, the patriotic song once again became for Ukrainians a form of collective unity and conscious resistance. This is a stable function of art in times of war. However, when Ukraine’s domestic war has already lasted longer than World War I, it seems that everything has been placed at stake upon the heavy fate …
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How Nvidia GPUs Compare To Google’s And Amazon’s AI Chips | CNBC This video explains that the manufacturing location of AI chips is a key geopolitical issue in the semiconductor industry (13:42 – 14:00). It highlights that giants like Nvidia, Google, and Amazon largely rely on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to make their chips (13:30 – 13:37). This video …
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ALLFARE: CHINA’S WHOLE-OF-NATION STRATEGY By: Michael Margolius | War Room- U.S. Army War College To analyze how states exert their influence, scholars often compartmentalize actions into rigid analytical frameworks, which obscures the holistic scope of the challenge. “Current paradigms of understanding the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) actions against the West typically use the DIME framework or even the Chinese Communist …
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Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. Exclusive | The U.S. Is Actively Seeking Regime Change in Cuba by the End of the Year 2. Inside Trump’s Head-Spinning Greenland U-Turn 3. Opinion | Mr. Trump and the Davos Divide 4. Davos and the Unraveling of the U.S. Collective Security Framework 5. In Cuba’s swamps, Trump has raised spectres of …
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80,000 Hours is a nonprofit at Oxford University that provides research and support to help talented young people move into careers that tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Below is an article that they continuously update on the world’s most pressing problems, providing data, career pathways, and advice for those who want to work on those issues. We prioritize problems …
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Ethiopian soldiers attend a drone piloting training program organized by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security at an aviation school in Beijing. (Photo courtesy AFP/Xing Guangli) Check out this great collection of 2025 graphics from the Africa Center of Security Studies, highlighting security trends across Africa (Article Link). “A look back at 2025 in graphics reveals an African security landscape …
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Introduction As many different aspects of governance, including military operations, become increasingly integrated with cyberspace, policymakers must decide how to characterize and define cyberattacks. Cyber technology is a novel aspect of warfare. Its inherent unprecedentedness and asymmetrical nature complicate the systematic characterization of cyber actions as acts of war. This ambiguity leads to inconsistencies in our responses, which in turn …
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A Battlefield Commander’s Warning: Venezuela’s Political Transition Offers Hope, But the Shadows of Iraq Reveal Risks We Cannot Ignore In April 2003, I commanded Task Force 2-7 when we destroyed the Iraqi Republican Guard at Baghdad International Airport and reinforced 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division in their decisive attack into Baghdad. After the invasion, my task force secured downtown Baghdad …
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Access SOF News HERE. Weekly Drone Update – Jan 21, 2026 January 20, 2026 SOF News Drones 0 News updates on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) including latest drone technology and use in conflicts around the world. Curated articles on the topics below are provided: SFA in the Drone Age AI-Enabled Drone Swarms Red Army Doctrine and Drones Drones and Mercenaries High Stakes in …
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As Hurricane Melissa’s 185 mile-per-hour winds struck the Caribbean in October 2025, a critical yet underappreciated dynamic of modern United States (U.S.) security cooperation was on full display. Jamaica – a country whose Defense Force (JDF) had never experienced a direct hit from a Category 5 hurricane – was thrust into the role of first responder. The question was not …
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Among the many loud processes taking place in the Middle East, the disarmament of the Kurds is the most tacit. Though the Kurds have yet to achieve their national aspirations, the Syrian government seeks to disarm them, primarily to end their century-plus old armed struggle for freedom. Stripping Kurds of their armed forces before guaranteeing their civil rights is dangerous …
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A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook hovers past Soldiers of Golf Company, Task Force CARDINAL on May 10, 2025, at Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq (Photo courtesy US Army). SOFX and other media outlets report that U.S. troops have fully withdrawn from Ain al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq, with the Iraqi army assuming complete control, according to Iraq’s Defense Ministry. The withdrawal follows …
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