If necessary, the authors will propose a more fitting definition for IW that is aligned with its doctrinal characterization. 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). 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 Seems to me there is adequate historical example of both; Russian and US for just a couple and I'd further note that US Special forces were originally created specifically to assist in the conduct of guerrilla warfare as cited in items c. and d. Thus, I suggest their definition itself is 'lacking in academic rigor.' As a wise USMC 0-6 said recently, "IW, its been decided, now lets get on with it.". In short, I think this is a search for unneeded precision. Information and translations of irregular warfare in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Reinforces my feeling that we need a strategic pause in new concept development as we have reached concept/terminology/definition paralysis or overload. Will Commanders Trust Their New AI Weapons and Tools? The first step is to recognize that SF does not own the UW mission. It is a US national strategic mission. It is folly to argue that the IW JOC is wrong because it does not comply with 1951 Army doctrine. They were much more diplomatic than what I intended to post. The antipathy of the occupied population toward their occupiers was a given. The Enduring Pillars of Successful Counterinsurgency. But the most extreme example of the misconceptions about UW concerns Irregular Warfare.  The DOD Instruction 3000.7 codifies Irregular Warfare as consisting of Counterinsurgency, Stability Operations, Foreign Internal Defense, Counterterrorism, and, importantly, Unconventional Warfare. After 9/11, we identified a need to create a description for what to many appeared to be a new form of warfare â this became Irregular Warfare. Then in 2008 we grouped the above five activities in the DOD Instruction âspecifically defining and describing Irregular Warfare as: A violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant population(s). Stability Operations . 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. As we know, the five pillars of irregular warfare are rooted within these seven core operations. First they claim the strategic level of IW is the underground, and that the underground is largely focused on the populace (thus strategic victory = populace), and then they argue that IW should only be focused on the overt guerrillas, or at the tactical level? The paper will also look at the doctrinal relationship between Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) and IW. DOD used the term IW to garner the support of the Servies and Congress, but many argue that IW needs to be subordinated to the term Complex Operations, which is favored by the civil departments and agencies, and just recently was defined by the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act. Unconventional warfare consists of activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to. Well worth the read. 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). 5 Pillars of Irregular Warfare (IW) FID. 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. Perhaps that is because IW is different things to different people. What does irregular warfare mean? It is the term now in use by DOD, is defined in the DoD Dictionary (JP 1.02), and has be codified in the recent DOD Directive on IW (DODD 3000.07), dated 1 Dec 08. Irregular warfare has become the centre of much military and academic study in recent years, due mostly to the ongoing NATO operations in Afghanistan. The DOD Instruction 3000.7 codifies Irregular Warfare as consisting of Counterinsurgency, Stability Operations, Foreign Internal Defense, Counterterrorism, and, importantly, Unconventional Warfare. Since 1955, GW has meant the more or less overt military or paramilitary aspects of an insurgency or resistance movement. 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. The reason for this is the almost exclusive association of UW with SOF. 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. Nonetheless, the definition currently resides in Joint Publication 1-02 the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms and is now the foundation for US military unconventional warfare doctrine:  Unconventional warfare consists of âactivities to enable a resistance or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or overthrow a government or occupying power through and with an underground, auxiliary, and guerrilla force in a denied area.â. However, tactical and operational cooperation and collaboration is not enough. Often, strategic-level analysis and decision making that is critical for UW is stifled because of the widely held belief that UW belongs solely to SOF, and in particular to SF.  Many working groups and  new manuals could have been avoided had doctrine writers began by looking at the threats from an unconventional warfare frame of reference instead of formulating a new term. (IW JOC 1.0) Concepts associated with irregular warfare are older than the term itself. 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. I agree that the definition of IW may not be the the be-all, end-all, but lets face fact. Examining each of these pillars of power will illustrate the advantage the United States has already demonstrated in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how these pillars will give us the strategic advantage in irregular warfare or “COIN,” going forward. Version 1.0 of the IW JOC proposes that IW is a protracted form of warfare, on a global or regional scale, that will require new capability development. ), and it was effective where applied, unfortunately it was applied on too small of scale until later in the war. 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. Insurgency. By then Lawrence was gone, though not his influence, much to Orde Wingate’s consternation. The 5 Pillars of Irregular Warfare : COIN - Counter InsurgencyCT - Counter TerrorismFID- Foriegn Internal DefenseUW - Unconvential WarfareSO - Stability Ops . Since you already addressed my concerns about confusing dated doctrinal references with reality (I'm confident the wise authors of the earlier doctrines were as uncomfortable with their definitions, as we are with ours), I will address a couple of other areas. Winning Damaged Hearts and Minds: An Irregular Warfare Concept David L. Grange, S. Swanson, and Patrick Christian 29 Chapter 6. Show More. Another logic disconnect jumped out at me, when they identified the strategic issue and only wanted to address the tactical one. Glenn, thank you for your words of wisdom. AQ's focus on various external population groups is plain to see, and they are trying to isolate their opponents by cutting off external support. DOD is now thinking about IW operationally and strategically, not merely as a tactical adjunct to CIA covert actions or conventional military operaions. For example, Frank Hoffman has advanced the intriguing concept of hybrid warfare, first observed in the 2006 Lebanon War, in which adversaries blend conventional, irregular, disruptive, and catastrophic capabilities and apply them to achieve their strategic objectives. 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. 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. Irregular warfare (IW) is defined in United States joint doctrine as "a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations."  But the fact remains that, notwithstanding the notoriety of  highly visible missions such as the Bin Laden raid, years of paying little attention to SOF has led to a situation in which SOF activities and missions are not well understood, accepted, or sought after. Also called IW. 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. These Five Pillars were published in 2011. V/R Dave. 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. 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