What the Hell is Irregular Warfare Anyway?

16 snips

Apr 17, 2026

Guest

Lieutenant General (ret.) Mike Nagata

Lieutenant General (ret.) Mike Nagata, a 38‑year special operations leader; Eric Robinson, RAND analyst studying SOF and strategic disruption; Dr. Chris Tripodi, King's College scholar of irregular warfare concepts. They debate three rival ways to define irregular warfare. Short, sharp scenes cover strategic disruption, doctrine drift, operational costs, interagency incentives, and whether disruption should be proactive or reactive.

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ADVICE

Use Military Action To Create Opportunities For Other Agencies

Do use military action to create openings that enable diplomatic, informational, and economic instruments to finish strategic effects.
Eric Robinson's RAND work shows SOF effects often disrupt adversaries so other agencies can exploit those openings.

INSIGHT

Irregular Warfare Is A Tool When Force Won't Work

Irregular warfare works when used because conventional force is infeasible or ineffective; it's a tool of the weaker actor to shape stronger ones.
Robinson framed it as the indirect military use to coerce or influence without decisive military domination.

INSIGHT

Kinetic Options Get Rewarded More Than Patient Influence

Bureaucratic and cultural factors favor kinetic solutions: they are familiar, visible, and rewarded.
Mike Nagata warned careers and public praise skew toward those skilled in violence, discouraging talent for patient, non-kinetic campaigns.

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Episode 152 of the Irregular Warfare Podcast grapples with the many definitions of irregular warfare used across the community of interest.

In this episode, our guests discuss why the concept of irregular warfare has resisted a stable definition across decades of changing doctrine, and what that persistent confusion has cost operationally and strategically. We walk through three competing definitional approaches— the maximal, the traditional, and the competition-disruption model — weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each. We close by asking what irregular warfare actually is at its core, and why getting that answer right matters, not just for writers of doctrine, but for practitioners.

The article is here: Fragmented Frontiers: Three Approaches to Understanding Irregular Warfare

Dr. Chris Tripodi is Reader in Irregular Warfare at the Defence Studies Department, King's College London. His research focuses on the forms of knowledge Western militaries use to understand their operational environments, and the complex relationship between counterinsurgency theory and practice.

Eric Robinson is an Associate Director of the Data Science and Technology Group at the RAND Corporation, where his research focuses on special operations, irregular warfare, and gray zone challenges. He is the lead author of RAND's 2023 report Strategic Disruption by Special Operations Forces, which we touch on in today’s episode.

Lieutenant General (ret.) Mike Nagata served for 38 years in the US Army, with 34 years in special operations. Among his many positions of leadership, he served as Commander of US Special Operations Command-Central from 2013 to 2015, and was heavily involved in the first two years of combat operations against the Islamic State.

Alisa Laufer hosts this episode. Please reach out to the Irregular Warfare Podcast team with any questions about the episode or the broader mission of the show.

The Irregular Warfare Podcast is a production of the Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI). We are a team of volunteers dedicated to bridging the gap between scholars and practitioners to support the community of irregular warfare professionals. IWI generates written and audio content, coordinates events for the IW community, and hosts critical thinkers in the field of irregular warfare as IWI fellows. You can follow and engage with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

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All views expressed in this episode are the personal views of the participants and do not represent those of any government agency or of the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project.

Intro music: “Unsilenced” by Ketsa

Outro music: “Launch” by Ketsa