Research Guides: QPME: Small Wars and Irregular Warfare: Reports and Articles

Reports & Research Papers

What types of irregular warfare challenges is the United States likely to face in the future?
What strategies are best suited to deal with future challenges?
What are existing examples or models to support these strategies and effectively manage irregular warfare challenges?

Joint Publication 3-24: Counterinsurgency
Prepared under the direction of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), this document sets forth joint doctrine to govern the activities and performance of the Armed Forces of the United States in joint operations, and it provides considerations for military interaction with governmental and nongovernmental agencies, multinational forces, and other interorganizational partners.
AFDD 3-2: Irregular Warfare
Air Force Doctrine Document 3-2, 15 March 2013. This document complements related discussion found in Joint Publications (JP) 3-22, Foreign Internal Defense; 3-24, Counterinsurgency Operations; and 3 26, Counterterrorism.
Navy Irregular Warfare and Counterterrorism Operations: Background and Issues for Congress
by Ronald O'Rourke, Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, 14 January 2011.
Counterinsurgency Leadership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond
Edited by Nicholas J. Schlosser and James M. Caiella, foreword by Maj Gen Robert B. Neller.
"This volume—based on the proceedings of Marine Corps University’s “Counterinsurgency Leadership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond”symposium held in Washington, DC, in September 2009—contains the thoughts, arguments, experiences, and observations of twenty scholars, soldiers, Marines, and policy makers. It presents an exploration of COIN leadership in all of its facets and includes chapters on the roles that civilian leadership, military leadership, civil-military cooperation, advisory operations, and alliance relations play in confronting and defeating insurgencies."
Irregular Warfare: A SOF Perspective - Observations, Insights, and Lessons
This edition of the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) Special Operations newsletter examines the special operations forces (SOF) perspective of irregular warfare (IW) at the operational and tactical levels through a selection of articles and an academic study by military and civilian authors.
Irregular Warfare: Counterterrorism Forces in Support of Counterinsurgency Operations
By William B. Ostlund. The Land Warfare Papers no. 91, September 2012.
Paths to Victory: Detailed Insurgency Case Studies
In-depth case studies of 41 insurgencies since World War II provide evidence to answer a perennial question in strategic discussions of counterinsurgency: When a country is threatened by an insurgency, what efforts give its government the best chance of prevailing? Each case study breaks the conflict into phases and examines the factors and practices that led to the outcome (insurgent win, counterinsurgent win, or a mixed outcome favoring one side or the other).
Principles of Modern American Counterinsurgency: Evolution and Debate
by Janine Davidson, The Brookings Institution, Counterinsurgency and Pakistan Paper Series, 2016.
Rapid Regeneration of Irregular Warfare Capacity
by Stephen Watts, J. Michael Polich, and Derek Eaton, Joint Force Quarterly 78, July 2015. "This article considers the challenge of maintaining readiness for large-scale irregular warfare (IW) contingencies when the national mood has so decisively turned against such operations." [Vietnam].
Rethinking the Wars Against ISIS and the U.S. Strategy for Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency
by Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic & International Studies, September 2015.
The Future of Irregular Warfare
Testimony presented before the House Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on March 27, 2012. By Seth G. Jones. Document Number: CT-374.
The Tactics of Insurgent Groups in the Republic of Chechnya
by Colonel Sergey A. Kulikov, Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Translated by Robert R. Love, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. December 2002.
War by What Means, According to Whose Rules? The Challenge for Democracies Facing Asymmetric Conflicts: Proceedings of a RAND–Israel Democracy Institute Workshop, December 3–4, 2014
by Amichay Ayalon, Brian Michael Jenkins. "The proceedings presented here summarize two days of discussion that underscored the wide range and complexity of on- and off-the-battlefield issues that are part of contemporary conflict, the necessity of candid dialogue rather than the defense of established positions, and the objective of formulating the right questions instead of jumping to conventional answers. Underlying the discussions at the workshop was a sense of frustration that military superiority, even military success, no longer counts as it did in past conflicts."

Articles

A Kinder Gentler, Machine Gun Hand or How I Gave Up My Right to Self Defense and Learned to Love COIN
By Matthew Swearingen.
America’s History of Counterinsurgency
By Michael E. O'Hanlon. The Brookings Institution, 2009.
How Counterinsurgency Has Changed Across the 20th and Into the 21st Century?
more... less...

By Wayne Tyrrell.
How Do Insurgencies End?
By Russell Croy.
Irregular Warfare and the Marine Corps: A changed security environment creates new opportunities
By Colonel Robert K. Dobson, Jr., USMC(Ret). Marine Corps Gazette, September 2012.
Outfitting a Big-War Military with Small-War Capabilities
By Michael R. Melillo, Parameters 36 (3): 22-35 , 2006.
Rethinking the Wars Against ISIS and the U.S. Strategy for Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency
by Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic & International Studies, September 2015.
Rethinking Western COIN: Lessons from Post-Colonial Conflicts
By Octavian Manea.
Small Farms and Small Wars: Planting The Garden in Village Stability Operations
By Doyle Quiggle.
Social Media and UW
By Lieutenant Colonel Brian Petit
Originally published in the April-June 2012 edition of Special Warfare
Some Thoughts on Irregular Warfare: A Different Kind of Threat
By Jeffrey B. White. Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency.
The Future of Irregular Warfare
Testimony presented before the House Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities on March 27, 2012. By Seth G. Jones. Document Number: CT-374.

Primary Sources

Primary resources provide firsthand evidence of historical events. They are generally unpublished materials such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, artifacts, audio and video recordings, oral histories, postcards, and posters. In some instances, published materials can also be viewed as primary materials for the period in which they were written.

In contrast, secondary materials, such as textbooks, synthesize and interpret primary materials.

- As defined by the UCLS Institute on Primary Sources

Diary of a Guardia Officer, 1929-1930
Col Robert L. Denig, USMC, served as Northern Area Commander in Ocotal, Nicaragua, in 1929-30. His diary, submitted to the Marine Corps Gazette in 1937, includes a review of events leading up to Marine intervention in Nicaragua, patrol reports, and details of day-to-day operations, peppered with the usual Marine humor. Additional primary sources on the page: photographs, sketches of battles and maps, and an interesting cartoon.
United States Marine Corps (USMC) Operations in Nicaragua, ca. 1912-1933
Archive and links to USMC documents pertaining to Nicaragua, 1912-1933. This lively website also provides extensive detail and commentary on the Sandino Rebellion.

Online Resources

Marine Corps Small Wars Center and Irregular Warfare Integration Division (SWC/IWID)
The Counterinsurgency / Counter Terrorism / Unconventional Warfare Branch represents the USMC as Subject Matter Experts within its respective areas in order to most effectively conduct combat development and integration of its respective areas [note: site is CAC-enabled].
Small Wars Journal: Reference
A collection of online resources on Small Wars topics.
Institute for the Study of War
The mission of ISW is to provide real-time, independent, and open-source analysis of ongoing military operations and insurgent attacks.
Institute for the Study of War: Research

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