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Archive for the ‘Irregular Warfare’ Category

IWC Launches Its First Course on Irregular Warfare Approaches for the Homeland

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025

ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of War Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) announced the launch of its newest online course, Irregular Warfare (IW) 110: IW Approaches for Homeland Security and Defense, available now to homeland defense and homeland security professionals as of September 22, 2025.

According to national security experts, the U.S. homeland is under persistent unconventional attack in the ‘gray zone’ short of war from both threat nations like China as well as non-state actors such as transnational criminal organizations (TCO) and foreign terrorist organizations (FTO).

IW110 is a four-hour long self-paced virtual course about how the homeland can be better secured and how to defend the U.S. homeland using approaches such as countering threat networks, counter threat finance, and military counterterrorism techniques. Additionally, IW-110 explains how IW concepts like total /comprehensive defense, and countering hybrid threats can offer effective practices to establish a whole-of-society defense posture to increase resiliency against U.S. adversary activities in this gray zone.

The course is built with interactive courseware that integrates text, graphics, video and other media to enhance learning and encourage participants engagement. The course focuses on three objectives including Describe the current Homeland Security and Homeland Defense environment, identify irregular threats to the U.S. homeland from state and non-state actors, and examine the application of IW approaches/activities domestically to counter diverse threats to the homeland. The course includes five core sections and concludes with a final exam that must be passed to receive a completion certificate.

IW110 capitalizes on the IWC educational successes with the introductory IW101 course and advanced IW201 course, which have gained over 2,600 enrollments. This latest IWC course is specifically designed for Homeland Defense and Homeland Security professionals in the Department of War and interagency partners at the Federal, State and local levels. However, as an unclassified resource, it is also open to anyone interested in understanding how irregular warfare approaches can be employed to better protect our citizens and critical infrastructure.

This course helps realize the intent of the 2020 National Defense Strategy IW Annex to institutionalize and operationalize IW as a core competency for the U.S. military, as well as fulfill the Irregular Warfare Center’s (IWC) Congressionally mandated mission in Title 10 §345 “to serve as a central mechanism for developing the irregular warfare knowledge of the Department of War and advancing the understanding of irregular warfare concepts and doctrine” and “coordinating and aligning Department education curricula, standards, and objectives related to irregular warfare.”

Irregular Warfare 110 is hosted in two virtual offerings including the Center for Homeland Defense and Security self-study courses website. Registration and access information are available on our website irregularwarfarecenter.org/education/irregular-warfare-110

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Irregular Warfare Center

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New Name, Expanded Mission for Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute

Thursday, June 26th, 2025

(FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas) — The Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) was recently redesignated as the Security Force Assistance and Stability Integration Directorate (SFASID), and with the name change comes an expanded mission set.

Since its creation in 1993, SFASID has undergone SEVERAL significant restructuring events. Recognizing the need and requirements for forces able to conduct peacekeeping operations, the U.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute was formed to directly address the operating environment our forces were involved at the time such as Haiti, the Balkans, and Africa.

“There is a universal understanding of why the United States Army must be prepared for combat, but there is an equally compelling reason why the Army, the Joint Force, and our allies and partners must also prepare for stability activities that include consolidation gains during combat, setting the theater in competition, and conducting peace operations for collective conflict management,” said T.J. Moffatt, SFASID deputy director. “These DOTMLPF-P requirements all reside now in one Army organization.”

In 2005, after action reports from Iraq and Afghanistan helped the Army recognized the need for doctrine, training, and expertise in stability operations. The institute was renamed to PKSOI, and stabilization doctrine was added to their portfolio. PKSOI was reorganized again in 2019 to consolidate Irregular Warfare (IW) and Security Force Assistance (SFA) at Fort Leavenworth. PKSOI was realigned as a Direct Report Unit to the United States Army Combined Arms Center Commander, but remained at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, to continue its work as the formal, Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army directed lead as the Joint and Army Proponent for Stability and Peace Operations.

In 2022, IW Proponency was reassigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command, aligning the Security Forces Assistance Proponency (SFAP) under Mission Command Center of Excellence. With PKSOI and SFAP working in complimentary mission sets, the SFA Proponency was assigned to PKSOI. This reorganization shifted manpower back to Carlisle Barracks while creating an organization that more effectively supported the SFA Command, the Brigades, Theater Army Commanders, and the Geographic Combatant Commanders.

With the addition of this new mission, PKSOI underwent an internal reorganization in late 2024 that reflected a focus on SFA and Stability Operations concepts, doctrine, training, education, exercises, and policy. Peacekeeping is still in the portfolio and remains as one of the primary missions under stability operations, but the culmination is a name change to SFASID that accurately reflects the organization’s new mission.

Photo by Jason Bortz 

U.S. Army Combined Arms Center

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