DA4371 Special Operations and Strategic Competition

This course considers special operations in this new era of strategic competition. Emphasis is given to the relationship between policy, strategy, and special operations (relationship between ends, ways, and means). Discussing the calls for transformation made by ASD SO/LIC and USSOCOM senior leadership encourages participants to think more holistically about how special operations could remain a key strategic tool while moving forward and encountering the complex 21st-century security challenges presented by strategic competition. Contemporary case studies will provide the principal means of analysis to gain insights into emerging special operations theory, including the notion that special operations in strategic competition are conducted across all domains of military operations. Special attention is given to the SOF-Space-Cyber Triad, which enables the generation of cross-dimensional strategic effects along the spectrum of integrated deterrence, crisis, and conflict.

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Course Learning Outcomes

• Policy & Strategy. The student is able to write an essay demonstrating an understanding of Special Operations Theory (Block I), with specific emphasis on the relationship between policy, strategy, and the employment of Special Operations in the continuum of integrated deterrence, crisis, and conflict to address current and anticipated national security challenges in a global environment.
• SOF in Strategic Competition. Based on content in Blocks I, II, and III, the student is able to present an in-class brief articulating a ‘modern’ theory of SOF in Strategic Competition, to include appropriate missions, functions, capability requirements, and limitations of the special operations enterprise.
• Global SOF Case Studies. The student is able to present a case study and actively participate in class discussions regarding case studies about Special Operations missions, doctrines, and competitors’ use of special operations and irregular forces.
• Future Implications. Based on prior coursework and the results of the table-top exercise, the student is able to write an essay that assesses the implications of technologies and emerging global trends in the current and future operational environments, as it relates to SOF’s missions, doctrine, organization, training, and policy.