
Strategy beneath the threshold of war.
The gist
Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how states and armed groups compete when formal war is only part of the story. Episodes move through doctrine, proxy networks, sanctions, space systems, civil wars, and defense industry problems with a policy level of detail.
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About Irregular Warfare Podcast
Irregular Warfare Podcast is built for the parts of conflict that do not fit cleanly into conventional war. Its episodes examine proxy warfare, economic coercion, military assistance, foreign fighters, defense technology, militant alliances, space support, and the contested meaning of irregular warfare itself. The show has a policy seminar rhythm. A question is framed, a doctrine or case is put on the table, and the conversation works through definitions, incentives, institutions, and consequences. It can be blunt. It is rarely casual. The best episodes make clear why language matters in national security, because a confused concept can lead to confused resourcing, planning, and strategy. One conversation asks why the United States has so much skill and enthusiasm for kinetic power but far less comfort with winning without fighting. Another follows economic statecraft from sanctions machinery into great-power competition with China and Russia. Space is treated not as a distant domain but as command, control, weather, targeting, attribution, and joint-force dependency. An Iran conversation focuses on revolution, deterrence, proxies, and the logic behind armed networks. Discussions of Al Qaeda and ISIS compare how militant organizations use ideology, money, and operational capability to build alliances. Civil war episodes challenge the idea that internal wars stay internal. Foreign fighter conversations are especially stark, weighing purpose, recruitment, risk, and the personal motives that pull people toward dangerous conflicts. The show also spends serious time on the defense industrial base, emerging technology, and the distance between government procurement habits and the wider private sector. It is technical, strategic, and institutionally minded. Listeners get fewer hot takes and more careful arguments. The recurring concern is how states and non-state actors compete under the threshold of direct major war, and what militaries must understand before that competition turns kinetic.
Made for: For military professionals, policy students, security researchers, defense technologists, and serious listeners who want structured analysis of modern conflict. It best serves people comfortable with doctrine, institutions, and long-form strategic argument.
What sets it apart: The show treats irregular warfare as a contested professional problem rather than a catchall label. Its edge is the combination of operational cases, academic framing, and policy consequences across military, economic, technological, and political domains.
In their own words
The Irregular Warfare Podcast explores an important component of war throughout history. Small wars, drone strikes, special operations forces, counterterrorism, proxies—this podcast covers the full range of topics related to irregular war and features in-depth conversations with guests from the military, academia, and the policy community. The podcast is a collaboration between the Modern War Institute at West Point and Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project.
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Episodes
- 1
What the Hell is Irregular Warfare Anyway?
Hidden gemThe episode opens with the claim that irregular warfare is still defined by what it is not, which makes the term hard to use for national security planning.
Apr 17, 2026·1h 1m·5 clips - 2
Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare
Hidden gemIrregular Warfare Podcast's "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare" frames U.S.
Apr 3, 2026·58m·3 clips - 3
From Orbit to Objective: Space and the Future of Conflict
Hidden gemGeneral Stephen Whiting says Operation Midnight Hammer used seven bombers, space-based ISR, weather data, and GPS timing so the force could strike multiple targets with synchronized command and control.
Mar 20, 2026·51m·5 clips - 4
Iran, Revolution, and the Logic of Proxy Warfare
Hidden gemIrregular Warfare Podcast frames Iranian deterrence around long-range strike systems, nuclear hedging, nuclear latency, and a transnational proxy network the regime calls the "axis of resistance." Hosts Ben Jeb and Alex Chinchilla speak with Dr.
Mar 13, 2026·39m·2 clips - 5
The Strategic Logic of Large Militant Alliance Networks
Hidden gemChris Blair and Joseph Votel argue that militant alliance networks can reveal operational and ideological gaps, not just strength, in groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Mar 6, 2026·56m·3 clips - 6
Preserving the American Edge: Revitalizing the Defense Industrial Base
The Irregular Warfare Podcast features Dr.
Feb 20, 2026·1h 1m·4 clips - 7
Competitive Intervention, Proxy War, and Military Assistance: Anderson, Eyre, and Kuhlman
The Irregular Warfare Podcast episode examines competitive intervention, defined by Noel Anderson as rival states providing simultaneous military assistance to government and rebel forces in a civil war.
Feb 6, 2026·55m·3 clips - 8
Foreign Fighters in Ukraine and Beyond
Hidden gemIrregular Warfare Podcast episode 145 examines why people leave countries such as the United States and United Kingdom to fight in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, and other civil wars.
Jan 24, 2026·43m·3 clips - 9
The Future of War Part III: Strategic Sabotage in an Era of Great-Power
Episode 144 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast examines August Cull and Peter Singer’s 2037 scenario in which U.S.
Jan 9, 2026·1h 1m·5 clips - 10
Ukraine's Hidden Front: The Strategic Impact of Resistance Operations
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how Ukrainian resistance and special operations supported broader war aims against Russia, from the defense of Kyiv to long-range attacks.
Dec 26, 2025·1h·4 clips - 11
What Determines Success in Guerrilla Warfare?
Hidden gemEpisode 143 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast asks why some guerrilla organizations can implement effective strategies while others cannot.
Dec 15, 2025·44m·2 clips - 12
Codifying Irregular Warfare—Inside the Pentagon’s new DoD Instruction 3000.07
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines Department of Defense Instruction 3000.07 with host Ben Jebb and guests Jonathan Schroden, David Maxwell, and Mick Cherenkovich.
Nov 28, 2025·48m·3 clips - 13
Is Resistance Working in Ukraine?
Hidden gemThe Irregular Warfare Podcast examines whether resistance operations in occupied Ukraine affect the broader war when synchronized with conventional military activity.
Nov 14, 2025·52m·3 clips - 14
South America in Competition Conference: Bonus Episode 2
Hidden gemIrregular Warfare Podcast’s “South America in Competition Conference: Bonus Episode 2” brings together seven conference participants across three conversations about OSINT, illicit finance, and economic warfare.
Nov 7, 2025·47m·3 clips - 15
Unrestricted Innovation: The Supply Chain Battlefield
Fiona Murray and John Griffin examine how China’s control of drone components creates supply-chain leverage in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Oct 31, 2025·50m·3 clips - 16
South America in Competition Conference: Bonus Episode 1
Hidden gemThe Irregular Warfare Podcast’s “South America in Competition Conference: Bonus Episode 1” presents four conference follow-ups on Chinese influence, economic statecraft, infrastructure, and irregular warfare in South America.
Oct 24, 2025·54m·3 clips - 17
Future of War Part II: On Their Own
The Irregular Warfare Podcast's “Future of War Part II: On Their Own” examines August Cole's fictional 2030s mission in Thailand, where U.S.
Oct 17, 2025·1h 1m·4 clips - 18
Insurgent Armies and State Formation after Victory
Hidden gemThe Irregular Warfare Podcast examines why victorious rebel movements sometimes remain loyal to postwar governments while others fragment, defect, or stage coups.
Oct 3, 2025·55m·3 clips - 19
Future of War Part I: Raiders at the Edge of Tomorrow
August Cole and Major General Peter Huntley use Safe Harbor 2 to examine how MARSOC Raiders could operate against proxy terrorist networks in an unnamed country around 2040.
Sep 19, 2025·50m·3 clips - 20
The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines why Matt Pottinger and Matt Turpin believe deterrence is weakening around Taiwan after Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the October 2023 Hamas attacks backed by Iran.
Sep 5, 2025·46m·3 clips - 21
Winning Without Fighting: Economic Power and Information Warfare (Part 2)
Rebecca Patterson and retired Lieutenant General David Barno argue that the United States treats economic and informational power as supporting tools rather than primary domains of competition.
Aug 22, 2025·39m·2 clips - 22
Winning Without Fighting: Strategic Culture and Gray Zone Competition (Part 1)
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how American strategic culture shapes competition below the threshold of armed conflict, drawing on Winning Without Fighting by Dr.
Aug 8, 2025·38m·2 clips - 23
Winning Without Fighting: Strategic Culture and Gray Zone Competition (Part 1)
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines how Susan Bryant and Thomas X.
Aug 8, 2025·38m·2 clips - 24
Winning Without Fighting: Strategic Culture and Gray Zone Competition (Part 1)
The Irregular Warfare Podcast's Don Edwards and Julia McClendon interview Susan Bryant and Thomas X.
Aug 8, 2025·38m·2 clips - 25
Security Hybridization: U.S., China, and the Future of Global Security Assistance
The Irregular Warfare Podcast examines “security hybridization,” in which countries such as Vietnam and Hungary pursue security relationships with both the United States and China.
Jul 10, 2025·55m·3 clips - 26
Operation Spider’s Web and the Future of Asymmetric Warfare
Jun 25, 2025·55m - 27
Agile, Adaptable, AFSOC: Building Edge in Contested Skies
Jun 13, 2025·44m - 28
Five Years of IWI: From Podcast to Platform
May 30, 2025·1h 3m - 29
The Inheritance: America's Military After Two Decades of War
Apr 22, 2025·54m - 30
Plausible Deniability: Proxy Actors and the Hybrid Threat Ecosystem
Apr 4, 2025·39m - 31
Ukraine's Hidden Front: The Strategic Impact of Resistance Operations
Mar 14, 2025·1h - 32
The Fourth Age: The SOCOM Commander's Vision for the Future
Feb 13, 2025·59m - 33
Training for Victory: Lessons for Security Force Assistance
Jan 28, 2025·48m - 34
Theory vs. Practice: What is Irregular War?
This episode of the Irregular Warfare Podcast explores a theory of irregular war centered on the dysfunctional sovereign, with guest Jonathan Haggett discussing its implications for U.S.
Jan 10, 2025·52m - 35
Below the Threshold: China's Strategy of Armed Coercion
Dec 27, 2024·46m - 36
Culture, Access, Influence: The FAO Advantage in Irregular Warfare
Dec 13, 2024·56m - 37
Sneaky Wars in the Indo-Pacific
Nov 29, 2024·52m - 38
SOF’s Role in Conflict
Nov 15, 2024·51m - 39
Adapting to the Unpredictable: Climate’s Impact on Irregular Warfare
Oct 31, 2024·52m - 40
SOF and Influence Activities
Oct 18, 2024·45m - 41
The Stability Instability Paradox: How Nuclear Weapons Incentivize Irregular Warfare
Oct 4, 2024·54m - 42
DIU: Silicon Valley Meets the Modern Battlefield
Sep 20, 2024·45m - 43
Afghanistan Three Years Later: Alliances and Rivalries
Sep 6, 2024·56m - 44
SOF in Competition - Special Project
Aug 23, 2024·52m - 45
Do we need a Cyber Force? Part 2: Arguments Against a Seventh Service
Aug 9, 2024·51m - 46
Illicit Financing of Violence in Sudan
Jul 26, 2024·44m - 47
Do we need a Cyber Force? Part 1: Arguments for a Seventh Service
Jul 12, 2024·44m - 48
Drones are Here to Stay: The Proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Systems Across the Spectrum of War
Jun 28, 2024·1h - 49
Paramilitaries Abroad: China’s Use of Nontraditional Security Forces
Jun 14, 2024·54m - 50
Drones, Automation, and how ARSOF is Adapting
May 31, 2024·51m