Special forces

America’s New Special Operations Commander Wants to Predict the Future

The future of SOCOM is a command transformed, almost, into a quasi-intelligence agency. “We are very, very kinetic right now; very direct action because we are trying to rectify five failed states and an extremist phenomenon that’s gone rabid. Once we get that back in the box, eventually, I hope, we can have the right sort of access, placement, connective tissue, to retain stability.”

He acknowledged that getting into a more predictive stance would mean special operators spending more time deployed to places where there is no ‘hot fight’ but where tensions might be brewing or circumstances developing to nurture new threats. A more permanent SOF presence in more places is “not our inclination. In most cases, it’s to bring the boys back home. It’s ‘come on, let’s get back out of this thing.’ Arguably, you do that at your great peril.”

One key to a more anticipatory special operations force is a “transregional assessment process,” which looks at threats beyond their geographic features, where the threat is based, to a more comprehensive understanding of the threat, it’s underlying environmental, economic, social, and political tensions.