Unconventional Warfare 2.0: A Better Path to Regime Change in the Twenty First Century

Rogue regimes have extracted an inordinate amount of energy, blood, and treasure from the world’s militaries in the past century. Overthrowing these regimes is a major policy decision - fraught with peril and unknown downstream implications. The United States painfully re-learned these lessons following the invasion in Iraq and after deposing the Taliban in Afghanistan. Unconventional warfare (UW) is the flip side of counter-insurgency, in which external military elements enable surrogate guerrilla forces against an incumbent government. An updated concept for UW campaigns may offer a more palatable option for regime change in certain situations. Global instantaneous communications, social media, and the application of precision munitions from conventional forces have radically altered this age old method of warfare. Recent UW campaigns in Libya and Syria demonstrated the pros and cons of jump-starting a revolution and how non-state actors have made these already chaotic conflicts even more so. Unconventional Warfare 2.0 describes how demographic trends, rapid technological changes, and an adaptive enemy will drive new and innovative UW approaches.