The Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) invites junior scholars to submit papers for the 2026 Irregular Warfare Colloquium, scheduled for Sept. 15-16, 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 participants to the following topics, IWC encourages scholars 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 Global Network’s page on IWC’s website. 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.
Key facts:
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Eligibility: Undergraduate, graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty from U.S. and international institutions. While the topic is U.S. focused, the IWC is extremely interested in international contributions. See the next page for how submissions will be evaluated.
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Submit: CV, 200-word abstract, and complete paper (see the next page for criteria).
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Deadline: June 01, 2026
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Email submissions to dsca.iwc-fan@mail.mil.
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The subject line must include “Colloquium Submission: LAST NAME”
More details at: https://irregularwarfarecenter.org/initiatives/functional-area-networks/