Soft Power on Hard Problems: Strategic Influence in Irregular Warfare

Ajit Maan, Ph.D. is a security and defense policy analyst and a specialist in narrative strategies in radicalization processes. She is faculty at Union Institute and University's Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program as well as George Mason University's Center for Narrative Conflict Resolution, and is member of The Brain Trust of the Weaponized Narrative Initiative at Arizona State University. She is the author of Internarrative Identity: Placing the Self, Counter-Terrorism: Narrative Strategies, and Co-Editor of Soft Power on Hard Problems: Strategic Influence in Irregular Warfare. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, The Strategy Bridge, Small Wars Journal, Real Clear Defense, Stars and Stripes, The Indian Defense Review, Indian Military Review, Defense and Intelligence Norway, and other policy and military strategy journals.


Brigadier (retired) Amar Cheema, is Consultant Editor of the Indian Defense Review, Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer of RIMT University in Punjab, India, and author of The Crimson Chinar–The Kashmir Conflict: A Politico-Military Perspective.