Small Wars Journal – Wed, 04/27/2022 Conventional Warfare versus ‘Hybrid Threats’: An Example of the Either-or Fallacy By Tarik Solmaz Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has undermined the prevailing premises in the West about the character of contemporary warfare. Over the past decade, the Western world, generally speaking, had seemed to be convinced that actions that fall […]

Special Warfare magazine has published an issue devoted to special operations and ethics.   Special Operations, and unconventional warfare in particular, present ethical and moral issues at a much greater rate and to more junior individuals than any other type of military operation, possibly any other human activity. These operations ask young men and women […]

There is a new Special Operations Forces (SOF) Vision Statement and Strategy. United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SOLIC) have teamed up to publish the document. This partnership is in itself noteworthy, given the quiet angst surrounding the SOLIC’s new “Service-Secretary” role in […]

This article provides a quick introduction to the positions and personalities involved in the oversight of special operations forces and their employment. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD(P)) oversees the development and implementation of defense policy writ large, including policy relevant to special operations and special operations […]

From the Wilson Center’s Stubborn Things blog, an interesting observation on Russian casualties: More Russians were killed in Ukraine in the first three weeks of the invasion than the U.S. lost in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Russia is paying a high price for its war against Ukraine. As the war enters its second month, according to […]