Naval War College Symposium Examines Irregular Warfare, Maritime Security, and Strategic Competition

The U.S. Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups and the U.S. Naval War College Foundation hosted the center’s annual maritime symposium in Newport, Rhode Island, June 22–24, 2026.

This year’s symposium, “Gathering Storms & Shifting Tides: Maritime Security and Seapower in an Era of Strategic Rivalry,” brought together military leaders, national security practitioners, scholars, and industry experts to examine how irregular warfare and strategic competition are reshaping the maritime domain.

The event featured 35 speakers, panelists, and moderators, including retired Vice Adm. John W. Miller, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. Fifth Fleet, and Dr. Richard Tilley, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.

“CIWAG and the Naval War College Foundation have brought together nearly three dozen of the most accomplished – and in many cases, battle-tested – experts in the fields of irregular warfare, international law and counterinsurgency,” said Rear Adm. Darryl Walker, president of the war college. “Combining the likes of Dr. Tilley and Vice Adm. Miller, among many other current and recently retired military practitioners, with some of the world’s most well-respected analysts and strategists, this symposium again highlights the invaluable role of CIWAG and the larger war college in the national discourse on grey zone competition operations and non-state actors.”

Other featured participants included maritime historian Geoffrey Till, Emeritus Professor of Maritime Studies at King’s College London, retired U.S. Army Col. David Maxwell, Vice President of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, and Dr. John A. Pennell, editor-in-chief of PRISM: The Journal of Complex Operations.

Panels addressed a range of emerging maritime security challenges, including special operations, narcoterrorism, autonomous maritime systems, homeland defense, Arctic and High North security, maritime lawfare, dark-fleet activity, port security, and seizure-at-sea operations.

“Irregular warfare increasingly plays out through maritime systems that are essential to global security and commerce,” said retired U.S. Army Col. David A. Brown, director of CIWAG. “This symposium focused attention on the ports, chokepoints, sea lanes, undersea infrastructure, commercial networks, autonomous systems, and partner maritime forces that are now central to competition below the threshold of armed conflict.”

The symposium highlighted CIWAG’s role as a forward-looking forum for connecting practitioners, scholars, and policymakers working through the evolving challenges of irregular warfare, maritime security, and competition below the threshold of armed conflict.