Dr. Ken Gleiman is a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, where he develops programs for the Future Security Initiative and teaches in the School of Politics and Global Studies. He also teaches at Georgetown University and serves as an Adjunct Political Scientist at RAND. A retired U.S. Army Colonel, Green Beret, and strategist with 27 years of service, his assignments included the DOD China Task Force, OSD Policy, and senior strategy roles in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Security Studies from Kansas State University and master’s degrees from Georgetown University and the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies.
This article addresses the challenges faced by the United States in maintaining a sustained approach to irregular warfare (IW), historically marked by a "boom...