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Jonathan W. Hackett, "Theory of Irregular War" (McFarland, 2024)

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Apr 7, 2024

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Jonathan W. Hackett

Jonathan W. Hackett, a U.S. Marine veteran and former interrogator with two decades in intelligence and special operations, outlines why irregular wars erupt when states fail. He explains sovereign dysfunction, people-centered frameworks, territory and geography, social drivers of participation, funding mechanisms, and why conventional military theory often misreads these conflicts.

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insights

INSIGHT

Ideology Forms Worldview Not Always The Cause

Ideology shapes worldview but is rarely the sufficient cause of irregular war.
Hackett follows Ali Shariati: ideology forms thinkers' and actors' worldviews, but unmet expectations drive violent choice.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Mahabad Example Shows Geography Blocks Sovereignty

Hackett uses the 1946 Mahabad Kurdish uprising to show geography can block sovereignty and trigger rebellion.
The Shah's punitive expedition failed because mountains and deserts prevented effective state control.

insights

INSIGHT

Irregular Forces Can Become De Facto Governments

Nonstate actors can create functioning social orders by providing services the state cannot.
Hezbollah runs hospitals, collects taxes, fields politicians and a military force that fills Lebanon's governance gaps.

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Hackett's background and motivation

02:29 • 1min

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Intellectual influences shaping the book

03:53 • 3min

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Defining irregular war and sovereign dysfunction

06:39 • 3min

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State expectations versus people-centric view

09:38 • 2min

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Three theoretical frameworks compared

11:16 • 3min

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Grounded theory for qualitative analysis

14:19 • 2min

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Role of ideology in irregular war

Actors required for irregular war

20:11 • 2min

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Motivations: intrinsic and extrinsic

22:31 • 4min

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Psychology and social drivers of participation

26:07 • 27sec

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Territory, geography and sovereignty

26:34 • 2min

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Social order and nonstate providers

28:39 • 3min

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Irregular war versus conventional theory

31:41 • 3min

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Economics and funding of nonstate actors

34:54 • 4min

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Common tactics and asymmetries

38:58 • 4min

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Insurgency, revolution, and nested conflicts

42:49 • 2min

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Influential counterinsurgency theorists evaluated

45:10 • 4min

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Problems studying irregular war

49:20 • 3min

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Historical counterinsurgency comparisons

51:53 • 5min

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Social conditions that spark irregular wars

56:26 • 2min

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Implications for Westphalian sovereignty

58:45 • 2min

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Policy consequences and costs of misunderstanding

01:01:05 • 1min

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Future research and concluding cases

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Theory of Irregular War

Jonathan W. Hackett

From Afghanistan to Angola, Indonesia to Iran, and Colombia to Congo, violent reactions erupt, states collapse, and militaries relentlessly pursue operations doomed to fail. And yet, no useful theory exists to explain this common tragedy. All over the world, people and states clash violently outside their established political systems, as unfulfilled demands of control and productivity bend the modern state to a breaking point.

Jonathan W. Hackett's Theory of Irregular War (McFarland, 2023) lays out how dysfunctional governments disrupt social orders, make territory insecure, and interfere with political-economic institutions. These give rise to a form of organized violence against the state known as irregular war. Research reveals why this frequent phenomenon is so poorly understood among conventional forces in those conflicts and the states who send their children to die in them.

Jonathan W. Hackett is a U.S. Marine with two decades of experience. He has held positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, and the Marine Corps operating forces prior to teaching full spectrum human intelligence operations and security cooperation in Dam Neck, Virginia.

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