This blog is about the 2026 Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium.
18 – 20 AUG 2026 | Honolulu, Hawaii
E komo mai. Welcome.
As we prepare to gather in Honolulu, there is a Hawaiian word that feels particularly appropriate for what comes next:
Laulima.
Cooperation. Joint action. Many hands working together.
It is a simple idea, but across the Indo-Pacific it carries real weight.
From 18–20 August, the 2026 Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium will bring together Special Operations Forces, international partners, government, industry and academia in Honolulu to focus on the operational challenges, capability requirements and partnerships shaping this enormous theater.
And the location matters.
Honolulu is not the backdrop
Look at a map of the Indo-Pacific and one thing becomes clear very quickly.
This theater does not do small.
The distances are vast. The operating environments are different. The nations, requirements and capabilities are diverse.
Honolulu sits at the center of that conversation for good reason.
So we are not traveling to Hawaii simply to talk about the Indo-Pacific.
We are meeting in a place where many of these challenges, partnerships and requirements are worked every day.
That makes a difference.
The map may separate us. The mission cannot.
Distance is one of the realities of operating across the Indo-Pacific.
But perhaps the more important question is what we do about it.
How do nations operate more effectively together?
How do we strengthen relationships before they are tested?
How do we share lessons across very different operating environments?
How do we identify capability gaps faster?
And how do we connect the person experiencing the problem with the person who might actually be able to help solve it?
That is where laulima becomes more than a useful Hawaiian word.
It becomes the point.
No one nation, command, company or organization has every answer.
Getting better across this theatre requires people working together.
A shared kuleana
There is another Hawaiian word worth considering as this community comes together:
Kuleana.
It can mean responsibility, but also carries ideas of concern, right and privilege.
That feels relevant.
Everyone arriving in Honolulu comes with a different kuleana.
Operators bring experience.
Partner nations bring perspectives shaped by their own geography and security challenges.
Government brings requirements, policy and acquisition.
Industry brings technology and the ability to turn ideas into capability.
Academia brings research, challenge and different ways of thinking.
Our responsibility at GSOF is to help connect them.
Because strategy on its own is not enough.
Eventually, strategy has to become action.
A requirement has to become capability.
A partnership has to become cooperation.
And a conversation has to lead somewhere.
The conversations between the conversations
We will hear a lot from the stage next week.
But anyone who spends time around this community knows that some of the most important moments will happen somewhere else.
Walking out of a session.
Around a table.
Between two people who realize they are dealing with the same problem.
Or when someone says:
“We tried something similar.”
“We should work on this together.”
“I know who you need to meet.”
That is the network doing what it is supposed to do.
Not networking for networking’s sake.
Connecting people around a purpose.
Laulima.
Just over a week to go
The purpose of the Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium is to help bridge the gap between strategy and the battlefield.
Doing that across a theater this large was never going to be simple.
But getting the right people together, in the right place, to have the right conversations is a very good place to begin.
So, e komo mai.
To our SOF community.
To our international partners.
To government, academia and industry.
Honolulu is ready.
The conversations are waiting.
And just over a week from now, the work begins.
Laulima. Many hands. One shared challenge.
We’ll see you in Honolulu, 18–20 August.
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