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1 1 (January 8, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govenxq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con re &on I flesedrch Service horujig Aecji ivede a~m 'e1914 Updated January 8, 2024 Defense Primer: What Is Irregular Warfare? Introduction 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. Missions of Irregular Warfare IW includes, among other activities, the specific missions of unconventional warfare (UW), stabilization, foreign internal defense (FID), counterterrorism (CT), and counterinsurgency (COIN). Unconventional Warfare. P.L. 114-92, Section 1097, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2016, defines UW as activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, or guerrilla force in a denied area. UW is a core component of IW. Stabilization. Stability operations involve a range of activities from responding to natural disasters to repairing critical infrastructure and strengthening indigenous institutions to provide security, essential services, justice and economic opportunity. Stability operations may be an interagency effort. Foreign Internal Defense. DOD JP 3-22 Foreign Internal Defense characterizes FID as participation by civilian agencies and military forces of a government or international organizations in any of the programs and activities undertaken by a host nation government to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, and other threats to its security. Counterterrorism. The DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines CT as activities and operations taken to neutralize terrorists and their organizations and networks to render them incapable of using violence to instill fear and coerce governments or societies to achieve their goals. They are distinct from counterinsurgency and stability operations as well as from security cooperation. Counterinsurgency. In JP 3-24, COIN are comprehensive civilian and military efforts designed to simultaneously defeat and contain insurgency and address its root causes. Operations in Irregular Warfare Related activities such as military information support operations (MISO) or psychological operations, cyberspace operations, countering threat networks, counter-threat finance, civil-military operations, and security cooperation also shape the information environment and other population-focused arenas of competition and conflict. Military Information Support Operations. Also known as psychological operations, MISO are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals in a manner favorable to the originator's objectives. (JP3-13.2) Cyberspace Operations. In JP 3-12, cyberspace operations are the employment of cyberspace capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve objectives in or through cyberspace. They include offensive measures intended to project power in and through cyberspace, and defensive measures to protect and preserve the ability to use one's own cyberspace capabilities. Countering Threat Networks. JP 3-25 describes countering threat networks as the aggregation of activities across the DOD and United States Government departments and agencies that identifies and neutralizes, degrades, disrupts, or defeats designated threat networks.

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