CIWAG - Annual Symposium Report - 2013

The Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups presented its fifth annual symposium, “Irregular Warfare: Afghanistan and Beyond,” on June 26-27, 2013. More than 60 U.S. and international academics and practitioners attended to discuss the challenges associated with irregular warfare and armed groups.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-symposia/1004/thumbnail.jp

CIWAG - Annual Symposium Report - 2018

The Center for Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups at the U.S. Naval War College presented its 10th annual symposium, “Access and Influence,” on June 26-27, 2018. Over 90 U.S. and international academics, practitioners, and operators from the U.S. Navy and other services attended to discuss the strategic and operational challenges associated with irregular warfare and armed groups. Attendees also included representatives from DHS, DIA, FBI, the intelligence community.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-symposia/1001/thumbnail.jp

CIWAG - Annual Symposium Report - 2012

The Center for Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups at the US Naval War College presented its fourth annual symposium, “Exploiting Seams and Closing Gaps,” on June 26-27, 2012. Over 60 US and international academics, practitioners, and operators attended to discuss the strategic and operational challenges associated with irregular warfare and armed groups. Attendees also included members from DHS, DIA, NCIS, the intelligence community, and Special Operations Forces.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-symposia/1003/thumbnail.jp

CIWAG - Annual Symposium Report - 2017

The Center for Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups at the US Naval War College presented its 9th annual symposium, “Rising Tides,” on 27-28 June 2017. Over 80 US and international academics, practitioners, and operators attended to discuss various strategic and operational challenges associated with irregular warfare and armed groups. Attendees also included members from DHS, DIA, NCIS, intelligence agencies, Special Operations Forces, and State Street Bank, Inc.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-symposia/1000/thumbnail.jp

Blood revenge and violent mobilization: evidence from the Chechen Wars

Despite a considerable amount of ethnographic research into the phenomena of blood revenge and blood feud, little is known about the role of blood revenge in political violence, armed conflict, and irregular war. Yet blood revenge—widespread among many conflict-affected societies of the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond—is not confined to the realm of communal infighting, as previous research has presumed. An empirical analysis of Russia's two counterinsurgency campaigns in Chechnya suggests that the practice of blood revenge has functioned as an important mechanism in encouraging violent mobilization in the local population against the Russian troops and their Chechen proxies. The need to exact blood revenge has taken precedence over an individual's political views, or lack thereof. Triggered by the loss of a relative or humiliation, many apolitical Chechens who initially sought to avoid involvement in the hostilities or who had been skeptical of the insurgency mobilized to exact blood revenge to restore their individual and clan honor. Blood revenge functions as an effective, yet heavily underexplored, grievance-based mechanism encouraging violent mobilization in irregular wars

‘New’ and ‘old’ wars – the changing dimensions of warfare

The article aims to present the issue of ‘old’ versus ‘new’ wars in relation to their specific features. It focuses on the characteristics of both phenomena, as well as providing an analysis of the causes and sources of armed conflicts and their changing dimensions. Methods of waging war have changed along with the political, economic, social and technological developments which have been observed over the years. The very philosophy of war has undergone changes in a similar way. The article aims to identify the direction of changes in the dimensions of war. It also provides an insight into the privatization of warfare and the constantly growing importance of non-state actors in shaping the international order, and therefore their role in post-modern wars

The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend… The Dynamics of Self Defense Forces in Irregular War: The Case of the Sons of Iraq

This paper assesses the effect that leveraging civilian defense force militias has on the dynamics of violence in civil war. We argue that the delegation of security and combat roles to local civilians shifts the primary targets of insurgent violence towards civilians, in an attempt to deter future defections, and re-establish control over the local population. This argument is assessed through an analysis of the Sunni Awakening and ancillary Sons of Iraq paramilitary program. The results suggest that at least in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq, the utilisation of the civilian population in counterinsurgent roles had significant implications for the targets of insurgent violence

Jus Ad Bellum after 9/11: A State of the Art Report

An examination of the applicability of conventional and revisionist just war principles to the global war on terror

CIWAG Maritime Irregular Warfare Workshop Workbook

CIWAG hosted a Maritime Irregular Warfare Workshop on 25-26 June, 2019. The invited U.S. and international academics discussed the strategic and operational challenges associated with irregular warfare in the maritime domain. Participating scholars presented proposals for CIWAG’s new maritime focused case studies series. This workbook contains the first cases in the new “Maritime Irregular Warfare Studies” series.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ciwag-symposia/1006/thumbnail.jp