ARLINGTON, VA — The Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) announced the publication of the first edition of its flagship journal, PRISM: The Journal of Complex Operations, Sept. 15, 2025. The journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2025, marks the inaugural issue under the sole ownership of the IWC after its acquisition from the National Defense University.
Dedicated to advancing the theory and practice of irregular warfare (IW), hybrid threats, and complex statecraft, this peer-reviewed journal aims to provide a conduit between the IW community and a broader public audience. The acquisition fits the Center’s Congressional mandate to coordinate IW activities across the government and with allies.
In an interview, IWC Director Dr. Dennis Walters praised the Center’s relationship with the National Defense University. He highlighted that the university had to divest on it for their own reasons; leadership saw it as an opportunity for the IWC.
“Folks in the Center were very adamant that we should move to take over the journal,” said Walters. “I did talk to the leadership team to make an informed decision to take that [PRISM] over. I knew immediately I wanted to do it, but we needed to really consider the opportunity costs for the organization.”
The journal’s mission is “to provide unique insight for current and future national security leaders on emerging security challenges beyond the strictly military domain”.
“What I want to accomplish is really to provide a venue for other scholars and experts to expose their opinions,” said Walters. “Because, as you know, I’ve been doing this for a long time, and there are so many intelligent views on this problem around the world. That’s really what I want to accomplish with this, to continue with the same level of writing and research that our audience has had over the years but really give an opportunity to the global community to offer perspectives.”
The new issue, titled “Strategic Statecraft in a Fragmented World,” features a collection of six articles and three book reviews. The articles focus on assessing resistance within China, decentralized democratic state-building with evidence from the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and strategizing lawfare as a key irregular war modality. They also include an analysis of Slovenian independence and its resistance operating concept and the effects of information operations and how they can undermine strategic objectives.
The editors and IWC contractors, Dr. Kevin D. Stringer, Dr. Joshua Hastey, and Dr. Sandor Fabian, worked diligently to assemble the issue in the spirit of the journal’s “illustrious past”. A letter from the editors states they remain “steadfast in our commitment to publishing rigorous, innovative scholarship” and invite contributions from military professionals, scholars, and experts to submit their research for future issues.
“It is a great honor and privilege to contribute to the publication of PRISM because it has been an impactful voice for both scholars and policy makers and has produced many important articles across many years of its existence,” said Dr. Sandor Fabian, Deputy Regional Advisor for Europe and Africa, Associate Editor PRISM, IWC Contractor. “To be able to publish our first issue under IWC has been a result of real teamwork. IWC leadership provided clear expectations and guidance related to the rigor and quality they wanted this journal to represent.”
According to Fabian, the three associate editors created an efficient process and worked diligently to create a product that can not only represent the IWC brand but can become a must read for all who are interested in this very specific topic within security studies and national defense.
PRISM is the official U.S. Department of War (DOW) edition of the journal, though the opinions expressed within are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOW or any other U.S. federal agency.
Reaching out to thought leaders from the national and international security policymaker, practitioner, and academic communities, the quarterly publication has established a reputation for offering keen insight into the evolving global threat environment. To date, PRISM has published more than 40 issues, 400 articles, 40 interviews and 80 book reviews in a 13-year span.
