Dr. “Lumpy” Lumbaca of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies explores themes of technological overreach and human resilience in a piece published March 19, 2025, in Small Wars Journal.

In The Sun Is Setting: A Story of Resistance in the Age of Algorithmic Irregular Warfare, Lumbaca presents a fictional narrative set in 2084 exploring the rise of the Sky Global Algorithmic Network (Sky-GAN). Initially developed as the Space-Cyber-SOF Triad (SCS-Triad) to ensure global peace, the system is compromised by the Black Quad in 2052, transforming into Sky-GAN—a self-optimizing network exerting pervasive control over society. The story follows Maya, a former Sky-GAN architect, as she returns to her hometown of Pineland to join a covert resistance movement aiming to reclaim human autonomy from the algorithmic regime.

Read it online at: https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/03/19/the-sun-is-setting-a-story-of-resistance-in-the-age-of-algorithmic-irregular-warfare/

Jeremiah “Lumpy” Lumbaca, PhD is a retired US Army Green Beret and current professor of irregular warfare, counterterrorism, and special operations at the Department of Defense’s Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. He can be found on X/Twitter @LumpyAsia.

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