Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare

A thorough understanding of Irregular Warfare IW and the principles of organizational theory and design will enable the Department of Defense DoD to organize efficiently and effectively for operations within the Irregular Warfare Environment, while maintaining its conventional capabilities. We develop our argument for this thesis in several stages. First, we define irregular warfare and differentiate it from conventional warfare through the development of our critical success factors. We introduce organizational theory and design in order to incorporate the critical success factors. We conclude that the DoD should reorganize certain elements of the U.S. Special Operations Command by incorporating existing capabilities, focusing on conducting operations within the Irregular Warfare Environment, and implementing our critical success factors.