Small Wars Journal Submission Guidelines

Key takeaways

• Small Wars Journal publishes practical writing on irregular warfare and accepts submissions from serving military members, veterans, government officials, academics, and independent researchers. Reading the site costs nothing, and the journal pays its authors nothing either.
• Two retired Marine Corps intelligence specialists, Dave Dilegge and Bill Nagle, started the journal in 2005, and the non-profit Small Wars Foundation runs it today.
• Most published essays run between roughly 1,000 and 5,000 words. Editors favor a clear argument in the opening paragraphs, evidence from experience or named sources, and endnotes in place of footnotes.
• Submissions go by email to the editorial address listed on the journal's website, with a Word manuscript and a short author biography. The volunteer editorial team usually responds within weeks.
• The journal offers neither peer review nor payment. Writers who need a scholarly credential should also weigh Military Review or Joint Force Quarterly, both compared below.

1. Introduction

A captain returns from a security cooperation deployment with an argument about how advisory teams should prepare. An academic journal's review cycle can run many months and demands a literature review. A unit bulletin board will reach a small circle of colleagues. Small Wars Journal was created in 2005 for exactly this situation, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan produced lessons that formal publishing could not absorb quickly. The founders, both Marine intelligence specialists, took the name from the 1940 Marine Corps Small Wars Manual, which had addressed interventions and insurgency a generation earlier. Dilegge edited the journal until his death in 2021, and the foundation continues the publication. The site remains free to read, volunteer-run, and open to any writer with something to say about irregular conflict.

The questions writers ask are practical ones: what subjects the journal accepts, how long a piece should be, what happens after an email goes out, and whether publication there counts for anything professionally. This article answers each question, explains how to prepare a manuscript that survives an editor's first read, and compares the journal with the other outlets where defense writers publish.

2. What the journal publishes and who reads it

The journal covers irregular conflict in every form it takes. Published pieces address counterinsurgency, stability operations, security force assistance, hybrid and gray-zone threats, urban operations, information operations, and logistics in contested environments. A dedicated section, El Centro, concentrates on organized crime and irregular conflict in Latin America. Formats range from feature essays of several thousand words to short blog posts, and an Emerging Voices series exists for first-time authors.

The readership is professional. Serving members, veterans, defense officials, students and faculty at professional military education institutions, and analysts read the site, and its pieces have been assigned in military education courses. That audience explains an editorial trait worth knowing before you write: the journal has a long record of printing argument and critique that pushed back against official doctrine. Editors treat disagreement as part of professional debate when it rests on evidence.

Read five or six recent essays before drafting one. Match the journal's plain style, note how authors handle sources, and check whether your subject has been covered recently so your piece adds to the discussion instead of repeating it. If the argument rests on your own operational experience, say so in the opening. The journal was founded to publish exactly that kind of writing.

3. Preparing a manuscript the editors can use

Editors are volunteers screening a steady flow of email, and manuscripts that state their claim early and prove it fast are easier to accept. A piece that opens with two paragraphs of scene-setting and reaches its argument on page four gives an editor little reason to continue. Preparation comes down to a short list:

• State the argument in the first two paragraphs, then support it. Journalistic and essay structures both work; a slow academic build does not.
• Write from experience where you have it, and name your sources for everything else. Attributions like "analysts believe" weaken a piece that the readership can fact-check from memory.
• Keep most essays between roughly 1,000 and 5,000 words. Blog-length posts of a few hundred words are another route, and the editors take those too.
• Prepare the manuscript in Word, with endnotes rather than footnotes, simple headings, and captions on any figures or maps. Articles appear on the site as web pages with PDF versions, and elaborate formatting does not survive that conversion.
• Include a two- or three-sentence biography with your current affiliation and a line stating that the views expressed are your own.
• Exclude classified material and check operational security on every example you describe. Active-duty authors face a second requirement: most service regulations call for review before you publish writing based on official duties, so clear the piece with your security office before sending it.

One caution belongs here. The readership includes people who were present at the events you may describe, and an error in a unit designation, date, or quotation costs more credibility with this audience than with a general one. Verify details twice.

4. The submission process from send to publication

The formal submission guidelines are short, and the whole process runs by email. The steps look like this:

1. Email the manuscript to the editorial address listed on the journal's submissions page. Attach the article in Word, include your biography, and put your contact information in the message.
2. A volunteer editor screens the piece for fit and quality. The possible outcomes are acceptance, rejection, or a set of edits and questions to answer.
3. Accepted pieces receive light editing and a publication slot. They appear on the site under the author's byline with the biography attached.
4. If nothing comes back within about three weeks, send a short follow-up. Editors hold day jobs, and a polite reminder is standard practice among contributors.

Rights are handled directly with the editor. The Small Wars Foundation is a non-profit, so no payment changes hands, and republication terms are confirmed at acceptance. Ask before you reuse a piece in a book chapter or send an adapted version elsewhere.

Scenario guidance: a company-grade officer submitting a training case study should expect a faster cycle than an academic journal and should still plan on edits. A civilian researcher should expect questions about sources and methodology. A first-time author can note in the covering email that the piece is an early work and ask whether it fits the Emerging Voices series.

5. How Small Wars Journal compares with other defense outlets

Publication venue determines what a piece achieves. The table below sets the journal against the outlets defense writers use most often.

The choice follows the purpose of the piece. A captain with a case study from a security cooperation deployment fits Small Wars Journal or the Modern War Institute. A strategy argument aimed at Washington policy debates belongs at War on the Rocks. An officer who needs the entry on an evaluation report or a graduate school file should aim at Military Review or Joint Force Quarterly and budget several months for those cycles. Analysts of technology policy without an operational background can consider Global Tech Observatory (globaltechobs.com), which publishes commentary on export controls, semiconductors, and AI governance and works with newer authors; its readership is smaller than that of the established defense outlets.

Two more points sharpen the comparison. Small Wars Journal's speed suits time-sensitive debates, and the tradeoff is limited academic weight. If you adapt one study for a second venue, disclose the earlier version and follow each outlet's rules on prior publication.

6. FAQ

Q1. How long should an article be?

Most essays run between roughly 1,000 and 5,000 words, and short blog posts are accepted as well. Length should match the argument. A 1,500-word piece that proves its point reads better than a 6,000-word survey that buries it.

Q2. Does the journal pay, and who holds the rights?

No payment. The Small Wars Foundation runs the journal as a non-profit. Confirm republication terms with the editor at acceptance, and ask before reusing the piece in another publication.

Q3. Can I submit something that has already been published elsewhere?

Original work is the default. A previously published piece requires disclosure and, when the first outlet holds rights, permission from that outlet. Editors decide these cases individually.

Q4. Do I need a doctorate or military rank to publish there?

No. The journal was created to give practitioners a voice, and the Emerging Voices series exists for writers publishing their first serious piece. Evidence and argument decide acceptance, and a first-time author with strong material competes on equal footing with a colonel.

7. Conclusion

Small Wars Journal fits writers whose authority comes from operations and whose subject is irregular conflict. The venue offers speed and a professional readership, and its email process has low barriers. It offers no payment and no peer review, and a web essay on the site carries limited weight in academic hiring files. Those tradeoffs should shape the decision.

For a piece meant to change how a unit plans its next deployment, this journal is the right venue. For a piece meant to satisfy a doctoral committee, Military Review, Joint Force Quarterly, or an academic journal fits better, provided the timeline allows. Either way, the work starts the same: read recent essays on the site, verify every fact, and clear the security hurdles before the manuscript leaves your desk.