FPRI to Host a Joint Conference with the Irregular Warfare Center

• August 5, 2024

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The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is pleased to announce a joint conference with the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) to discuss irregular warfare lessons learned since 9/11 on September 17-18 at the US Naval Institute Jack C. Taylor Conference Center in Annapolis, Maryland.

The conference aims to capture lessons learned, including positive and negative examples, in the conduct of irregular warfare operations around the world by US, allied, and partner nations and non-state actors after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

While Afghanistan and Iraq were the most prominent of the post-9/11 wars, the conference welcomes papers that draw on lessons learned from irregular warfare operations in the Philippines, Horn of Africa, the Sahel region of Africa, or elsewhere.

“We are excited to partner with FPRI for this critical, informative event to provide an opportunity to discuss some of the irregular warfare lessons learned since 9/11 while fostering growth and emphasizing the importance of learning from past experiences to find solutions to future irregular problems,” said Lori Leffler, IWC Chief of Staff and Deputy Director. “The tremendous value this event brings through the insights shared by panel members, practitioners, presenters, and irregular warfare experts aims to aid the future of irregular warfare.”

“IWC and FPRI’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and Nontraditional Warfare are happy to have the chance to collaborate on this project and to bring together both academic and governmental views and approaches towards studying this important topic,” said Phil Wasielewski, Director of FPRI’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and Nontraditional Warfare. “The purpose of the conference is not only to collect lessons learned from our post-9/11 irregular wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Horn of Africa, Sahel, Philippines, etc.) but also to highlight the continuing need to study and examine irregular warfare operations while much of the DoD budget and educational centers have been reoriented to conventional war against “peer competitors.”

“We see this conference not as a “one and done” event but as the first step for both of our recently new centers to catalyze interest in studying irregular warfare and avoid the boom-or-bust cycle that has plagued it in DoD and the academic world since WWII,” added Wasielewski. “The IWC has plans to collect all papers in their own databases and FPRI plans to publish select papers on its website. Submissions should describe lessons learned from one of seven conference topics: Information Operations; Human Terrain; Logistics, Supply, and Maintenance Operations; Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Operations; Intelligence and Counterintelligence Activities; Engaging with Partner Forces; and Utilizing Local Police and Militia Forces in a Counterinsurgency.”

Authors of papers chosen by IWC and FPRI will be invited to present their papers at the conference either in person or virtually. 

Wasielewski added, “The value this conference will bring is that there will be both a number of papers presented on various aspects of irregular warfare that are sure to be treasure troves of useful lessons learned but also a number of panels with very experienced participants from the various post-9/11 irregular warfare operations around the world. The insights they will share during the conference will be equally valuable and are worth preserving for the next time our national defense establishment is called upon to conduct an irregular warfare campaign.”