Small Wars Journal

One year ago today, on Veterans Day 2024, we relaunched Small Wars Journal under Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative. The timing was deliberate. We choose this day to honor service, sacrifice, and the enduring commitment to understand the character of conflicts. In the past year, our authors, readers, and partners have rebuilt SWJ into a thriving forum for professional discourse, with half a million monthly page views, tens of thousands of active readers, and a growing community that continues to challenge assumptions and advance ideas. 🔱 To our veterans, thank you for your service, and for continuing the fight to think critically and write honestly. 🔱 To our contributors and readers, thank you for keeping the small wars conversation alive and relevant. Here’s to the next year with sharp minds, open hearts, strong voices, and the pursuit of a powerful discourse in complex times. Sincerely, The Small Wars Journal Team PS. Stay tuned all Veteran's Month long, as we will be showcasing our rich history and what Small Wars Journal means to us. What does #SmallWarsJournal mean to you? Have a favorite piece? Something you'd like to share with us? We would love to hear from you. 📽️: Ishaan Reyna of Malibu West and Small Wars Journal

"Defining Cognitive Warfare" 🧠🛰️⚔️ Information operations chase reach and persuasion. Cognitive warfare seeks something else: decision disruption, faster adaptation, and sustained advantage in how actors think and act under contest. smallwarsjournal.com/2026/05/05/def… #SWJEssay @THINKJSOU @USSOCOM @ndupress

Xi's purges have removed half the PLA's senior leadership. My new piece with @smallwars argues the cure is worse than the disease. The PLA's weapons need speed and delegation, but Xi's reforms produce caution and paralysis. Link below.

Why Xi’s Search for Loyalty is Strangling the PLA’s Effectiveness — Kareem Korayem PLA reforms are tightening political control at the expense of professional autonomy, creating a force that “cannot fail him politically, but may fail him operationally when it matters most.” smallwarsjournal.com/2026/05/05/why… #SWJEssay @DeptofWar @INDOPACOM

We are the 11th Airborne Division. We train where others won't...living, moving, and fighting in extreme cold where the environment is as lethal as the enemy. The Arctic isn’t a challenge. It’s our advantage. nytimes.com/2026/05/04/us/… #ArcticTough #11thAirborne #Lethality

📖Read How China’s Fear of Secondary Sanctions Pushed Moscow into Leveraging Stablecoins to Reshape Financial Warfare to learn more. 👤By Hugh Harsono

🧵China’s fear of sanctions is reshaping how Russia moves money The fear of sanctions is shaping behavior before any policy is even enforced. That fear is now influencing how China engages with Russia...and how Russia adapts.

This is going to be a massive problem in the future of #warfare- the weaponization of #AI to influence the information ecosystem. @SmallWars smallwarsjournal.com/2026/05/04/the… Excerpt, "Imagine a communications failure during a military crisis. Under pressure, a cyber specialist consults an artificial intelligence system for troubleshooting guidance. The response appears detailed, confident, and technically sound. The recommendation is implemented immediately. Hours later, the system collapses. The operator does not realize that the recommendation contained a subtle flaw introduced through manipulated data sources or malicious prompts embedded within external information systems. The artificial intelligence response appeared authoritative, but it quietly introduced a vulnerability that triggered failure at a critical moment. No missile was launched. No obvious network breach occurred. Yet the operational outcome was the same: a mission-critical system failed when it was needed most. This scenario reflects a broader shift. Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming embedded in decision-making across military operations, cybersecurity defenses, infrastructure management, and intelligence analysis systems. These technologies promise significant advantages in speed and analytical capability. However, they also introduce new vulnerabilities, particularly when systems rely on external data sources or opaque model behavior. Adversaries may not need to penetrate networks directly if they can manipulate the information systems trusted by those who operate them. As a result, the weaponization of artificial intelligence may not occur primarily through autonomous weapons or robotic systems. Instead, the most consequential threats may emerge through manipulated information, cyber disruption, criminal networks, and destabilization of civilian systems. For Civil Affairs forces tasked with restoring governance and supporting stability operations, these developments introduce new challenges across the operational environment."