The goal of this portal is to assist scholars and practitioners in improving our understanding of governments’ responses to asymmetric threats across various pillars of irregular warfare and to identify the most effective strategies from existing research. In doing so, we hope to aid with research prioritization, collaboration, policy recommendations, and practitioner education.

Developed and maintained by START’s Irregular Warfare and Conflict Assessment Group (IWCAG), the portal presents searchable data tool that identifies the findings, methodology, key variables, hypotheses, levers of state power, targets, type of operations, and geographic focus of literature on government responses to asymmetric threats. Additionally, we synthesize the state of research based on analyses of our database and identify research gaps in our published reports. The portal also features original research from our team on various aspects of irregular warfare.

GRAT’s first database focuses on counterinsurgency (COIN). Our second database provides insights on responses to adversary's information operations (IOs) and on the nature of information operations used against an adversary in an offensive manner. Our third database explores counterterrorism (CT). Our aim is for the portal to expand and provide an opportunity for researchers to share with us their academic work.

To learn more about IWCAG, please visit the About Us page. If you’d like to get in contact with us, please visit the Contact Us page.

The portal is part of the Global Responses to Asymmetric Threats: Irregular Warfare Net Assessment Data Structure project, which is part of the Asymmetric Threat Analysis Center (ATAC), a joint program between START and the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS). ATAC is funded by the Department of Defense's Basic Research Office under Contract No. HQ003421F0481. The GRAT portal is also supported by START internal funds.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense, the University of Maryland, or START.