Defense Primer: What Is Irregular Warfare? (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Nov. 29, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF12565 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Catherine A. Theohary |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
U.S. military doctrine distinguishes between two types of
warfare: traditional warfare and irregular warfare. In
Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Publication (JP) 1
Joint Warfighting, conventional warfare is characterized as
“a violent struggle for domination between nation-states or
coalitions and alliances of nation-states, fought with
conventional forces.” The publication differentiates
between that and irregular warfare (IW), which is defined
as “a form of warfare where states and non-state actors
campaign to assure or coerce states or other groups
through indirect, non-attributable, or asymmetric activities,
either as the primary approach or in concert with
conventional warfare.” IW is a joint activity not limited to
special operations forces (SOF); the IW operating
environment includes all domains and the information
environment (IE). According to JP 3-04 Information in
Joint Operations, the IE is “the aggregate of social, cultural,
linguistic, psychological, technical, and physical factors
that affect how humans and automated systems derive
meaning from, act upon, and are impacted by information,
including the individuals, “organizations, and systems that
collect, process, disseminate, or use information.”
Previous DOD doctrine characterized IW as “a violent
struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and
influence over the relevant population(s).” IW actors may
use nontraditional methods such as guerrilla warfare,
terrorism, sabotage, subversion, criminal activities, and
insurgency in their efforts to control the target population.
In IW, a less powerful adversary seeks to disrupt or negate
the military capabilities and advantages of a more powerful
military force, which usually serves that nation’s
established government. Because of its emphasis on
influencing populations, actions to control the IE, to include
actions in cyberspace, play a prominent role in IW.
