Small Wars Journal

We're elated to announce our presence at SOF Week 2026! ♠️ 📍 Stop by the Westin Tampa Waterside to connect with us, test your knowledge with some SOF & IW trivia, and learn more about how Arizona State University is Supporting the Special Operations and Irregular Warfare Community Through Research, Education, and Innovation. 🔗: defense.asu.edu/sof-week 🎥 Stay tuned for live updates and on-the-ground coverage from SOF Week 2026!ㅤ ㅤ #SOFWeek #SOFWeek2026 #SmallWarsJournal @USSOCOM @GlobalSOF @Future_of_War @asu @NATO_SOF

🗞🇺🇸🇰🇷 🇰🇵Here is the July 13, 2026 Edition of the National Security and Korean News + Expert Commentary by our Editor-at-Large, Col. David Maxwell, Ret.! 🗞 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Find our daily news everyday on our website or subscribe via these links to have the news sent straight to you!📬 ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ 7/13/26 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 📰National Security News: upi.com/Korea-Regional… ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 1. Assessing Special Operations Forces (SOF) 2040 (Part 1): The Operator Is the Platform 2. Maneuvering to Obsolescence: The Death Ride of the Armor Branch 3. Citizen Sensors: Crowd-Sourcing sUAS Intelligence Using Smartphone Apps – A New Tool for Special Operations 4. Inside Lindsey Graham’s Final Mission: Saving Ukraine 5. How Ukraine Is Taking Out Russia’s Refineries 6. Frequent Oil Draws From U.S. Strategic Reserve Push Old System to Breaking Point 7. Storm clouds gather over America’s financial supremacy 8. U.S.-Iran airstrikes intensify as Tehran says deal is in ‘crisis phase’ 9. A Robot Army Remakes Ground Warfare in Ukraine 10. Japan Is Building a New Intelligence Agency With Help From the West 11. Inside Israel’s Secret Operation to Cultivate Ahmadinejad 12. Inside the terrifying Pete Hegseth purge pushing the US army to breaking point 13. ‘Impressed’ by Drone Strikes: Trump Shifts Attitude Toward Ukraine 14. Ten More For Taiwan: Policy Recommendations to Deter Chinese Communist Party Aggression 15. Reading the Sino-US rivalry: how a quiet literary relationship has shaped views on China 16. An Unlearned Lesson: The Sorry Record of Regime Change Operations in the Middle East 17. America and Iran’s Strange Moment of Opportunity 18. A Propagandistic Voice of America Hands Strategic Victory to U.S. Adversaries 19. The solution to the tanker problem the US military keeps finding in Pacific wargames 📰Korean News: upi.com/Korea-Regional… ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 1. Myth of the ‘Pershing Rule’ – What history teaches about coalition command and operational control. (Implications for Korea) 2. North Korea tearing down gray markets and replacing with ‘20×10’ facilities 3. Lee says will create ‘future response’ fund using extra tax revenue 4. North Korean defector arrivals ticks up but remains historically low 5. Lee’s approval rating rises for 2nd consecutive week: poll 6. N.K. premier vows efforts to expand ties with Beijing as he returns home from China trip 7. Cargo trucks line up at China-North Korea border in trade surge 8. Chip fabs, AI data centers put S. Korea’s nuclear policy back in focus 9. S. Korea, U.S., Japan bolster cooperation on SMRs amid surging power demand, geopolitical rivalry 10. Gwangju Airport semiconductor hub plan risks new Korea-US friction 11. Canada Submarine Contract: Battle Not Yet Over 12. Democratic Party: From Censorship Opponents to Proponents? 13. South Korea-US Alliance History Etched in Korea Military Academy

🗞🇺🇸Here is the July 12, 2026 Edition of the National Security News + Expert Commentary by our Editor-at-Large, Col. David Maxwell, Ret.! 🗞 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Find our daily news everyday on our website or subscribe via these links to have the news sent straight to you!📬 ㅤ 📰National Security News: upi.com/Korea-Regional… ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 1. U.S. and Iran Ramp Up Attacks in Fight Over Strait of Hormuz 2. Hard-Liners in Iran Want to Keep Fighting America 3. Trump’s Iran Blunder Shows Strategy Can Defeat Firepower 4. Aspiring to Regional Domination, Iran Is Ready to Escalate Over Hormuz 5. Survivors of Iranian attack that killed 6 U.S. troops say generals ignored warnings 6. Inside the Secret Factory That Supplies Ukraine’s War Drones 7. Wagner’s Remnants Are Running an Opioid Empire in the Center of Africa 8. How Putin Turned Japan Into a Den of Spies 9. The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI 10. A New Foe Has Emerged for Data Centers: Farmers 11. An Elvis dummy and a Gulfstream jet: Fat Leonard reveals how he fled the U.S. 12. The Age of Reading Is Over 13. Voice of America’s exiled journalists find meaning in work outside the newsroom 14. New NSF policy would ban almost all collaborations with Chinese scientists 15. CIA Officers Can Sense the Threat Within 16. Epistemic Delegation: Private AI Firms, Operational Knowledge, and the Future of Security Cooperation 17. This is Feynman’s Thinking Habit. It Made Him a Genius ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ

🗞🇰🇷 🇰🇵Here is the July 12, 2026 Edition of the Korean News + Expert Commentary by our Editor-at-Large, Col. David Maxwell, Ret.! 🗞 ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Find our daily news everyday on our website or subscribe via these links to have the news sent straight to you!📬 ㅤ 📰Korean News: upi.com/Korea-Regional… ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ 1. S. Korea, U.S. hold 1st joint tabletop exercise to counter wartime disinformation 2. Military targeted in nearly 19,000 cyberattack attempts in 2025: lawmaker 3. U.S. Pacific Fleet vice admiral says ‘extremely pleased’ with S. Korean Navy’s RIMPAC performance 4. Relocation of Gwangju military airport speeds up for chip cluster 5. U.S. Navy Eyes South Korean Yards for Tankers and Destroyers 6. North Korea orders surprise inspections of civilian militias 7. North Korea Empowers ‘General Reconnaissance Bureau’: Escalation in Cyber Warfare? 8. North Korea says denuclearization should apply to U.S., allies before Pyongyang 9. South Korean shipbuilders race for floating data centers 10. Lutnick urges Samsung, SK Hynix to expand U.S. chip output 11. New tag rule tightens grip on N. Korea markets 12. Fruit and vegetables fill North Korea’s markets as prices climb 13. A firsthand look at ‘Mongtan New City’ (Korea and Mongolia) 14. PPP ramps up pressure on defense minister over military service desertion allegations

"The problem with the Armor community’s belief structure and narratives however are that they entirely overlook conditional logic, instead relying on a slavish commitment to maneuver. "

My Tactical - Ops - Strategic Weaponized Drones Projections with AI & Swarms 10+ Years Ago APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; Terrorist and Insurgent Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Use, Potentials, and Military Implications. USAWC SSI Aug 2015, apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/…

Abstract Modern military organizations operate in environments characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, technological acceleration, and interconnected security challenges. While defense institutions have invested in design thinking, red teaming, experimentation, and professional military education, limited evidence exists regarding how these interventions influence adaptive thinking. This article examines how structured cognitive interventions, referred to as epistemic devices, shape problem framing, sensemaking, and decision-making among military personnel. Drawing on qualitative research with thirty military personnel, embedded reflective practice, and a taxonomy analysis of more than 1,200 design and innovation activities, the article argues that not all innovation activities are cognitively equivalent. Some reinforce existing assumptions; others create conditions for reframing, bias mitigation, distributed reasoning, and constructive challenge. The implication for defense organizations is clear: adaptive thinking should be treated as a capability that can be deliberately designed, developed, and sustained.

New research examines how structured activities influence thinking in military settings. This #SWJEssay introduces epistemic devices as mechanisms that support reframing, externalization, and collective reasoning. Based on interviews with 30 personnel and detailed taxonomy of 1,200+ activities, it offers practical insights for defense organizations. smallwarsjournal.com/2026/07/14/des…

Why weaponized autonomous AI drones are so deadly: "AI Racing Drone Beats Human Controlled FPV Racing Drones on Aerial Racetrack: An Overlooked ‘AlphaGo Moment’ with Future War Implications." C/O Futures Weaponized Drone Research Note Series. 18 Feb 2026, cofutures.net/post/ai-racing…

How can emerging technologies developed for medicine and human health become tools of cognitive warfare? Dr. James Giordano examines dual-use risks, global competition, attribution challenges, and the need for security by design. @smallwars @CognitiveSecI inss.ndu.edu/Research-and-C…

You could also use something like this to greatly revitalize our Civil Air Patrol/Civil Defense networks related to critical infrastructure.

In a new 4-part @smallwars series, HumRRO’s David Dorsey and Mike Ingerick, along with Col. David Maxwell (Ret.) (Center for Asia Pacific Strategy), and Mick Crnkovich (Stratagem Consulting) explore what SOF 2040 means for assessment, selection, and qualification (ASQ) ...

📑“Maneuvering to Obsolescence: The Death Ride of the Armor Branch” “Like its horse cavalry antecedent, the U.S. Army’s Armor branch is on a death ride of its own making." In this #SWJEssay, Dr. Amos Fox explains how we got here– and how to pull the Armor community “pull the Armor community out of terminal decline.” @USArmy @Future_of_War @ASU smallwarsjournal.com/2026/07/13/man…

To hammer home Woods’ point: citizen sensor networks are a blueprint SOF could adapt for irregular warfare against cartels and authoritarian regimes alike, if the legal, security, and trust questions get solved first. smallwarsjournal.com/2026/07/13/cit…

But there are ways around these issues. Third-party verification can confirm identity without storing it. And you can accept unverified reports and let analytics flag outliers, the same way banks catch fraud or maritime intel spots a ship moving faster than physics allows.

🧵“Citizen Sensors: Crowd-Sourcing sUAS Intelligence Using Smartphone Apps – A New Tool for Special Operations” 👤Catherine M. Woods Ukraine's ePPO app turns ordinary citizens into an early-warning network for Shahed drones. Now, imagine that idea pointed at cartels and resistance movements. We explore this new tool in this thread🪡 #SOF #SpecialOperations @IrregWarfare @WarInstitute smallwarsjournal.com/2026/07/13/cit…