The Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) invites junior scholars to submit papers for the 2026 Irregular Warfare Colloquium, scheduled for Sept. 23-24, 2026, in the Washington, DC area.
This selective event will bring together a cohort of 12–14 early to mid-career researchers to present their work on irregular warfare and engage directly with senior scholars and practitioners. Selected participants will be eligible for an honorarium and an invitation to submit their work for publication with the IWC.
The fourth colloquium will focus on “Irregular Warfare’s Impact on Homeland Defense.” We are interested in papers that explore how irregular warfare (IW) threats or opportunities could impact homeland defense. While not restricting students to the following topics, IWC encourages students to consider submitting projects focused on operations in the information environment (OIE), emerging technology, healthcare sector or medical support to irregular warfare, and counter threat finance (CTF)/threat finance and economic levers (TFEL). For a description of each of these interest areas, please view the Functional Area Network page. We are additionally interested in IW case studies, defense strategies, or threats from abroad that could be applied to U.S. homeland defense.
Selected participants will be organized into small groups based on shared research interests and complementary expertise. Each scholar will present a summary of their research to serve as a springboard for peer feedback and collaborative discussion.
Submissions will be evaluated on the following criteria:
• Topical relevance: The overall topic is U.S. Homeland defense, but we are looking for a wide range of articles discussing the most pressing challenges, so be creative and thought provoking.
• Submission of complete project: For inclusion in the colloquium, a fully developed research article must be submitted prior to the event.
• Article length: Articles should be 3,000-5,000 words in length, including endnotes, bibliography, tables. (Note: longer submissions may be considered on a case-by-case basis).
• Originality: Articles should make an original contribution to our understanding of practical and/or policy issues and debates in U.S. homeland defense
• Methodological rigor: Articles should be theoretically informed and methodologically rigorous and provide significant and original analytically-driven insights into real-world problems in a way that is accessible to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.
• Policy and practitioner relevance: We welcome submissions that make novel theoretical arguments, present original and significant empirical findings, and engage with pertinent policy issues. We expect all articles to have relevance to our practitioner, policymaker, and academic audiences.