Hunter-Killer Teams:Attacking Enemy Safe Havens
Issue Date: January 2010
File Size: 4MB
Today U.S. national security is threatened by violent extremist groups operating from sanctuaries in hard to reach areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and similar areas in the Pacific Rim and Latin America. It seems probable that there will be a marked increase in our need to disrupt and destroy enemy forces in multiple sanctuaries around the globe as we proceed to march through the 21st century. Celeski's paper provides a vision of the future SOF wherein hunter-killer teams could have a significant role to play in finding, disrupting, and destroying the enemy.

Report of Proceedings --Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society Symposium -- Irregular Warfare and the OSS Model
Issue Date: February 2010
File Size: 1.7MB
The JSOU and OSS Society hosted 68 attendees who included veterans of the OSS from World War II (including Major General [Retired] John Singlaub) as well as veterans from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflicts of the past seven decades at the Westin Harbour Island Hotel in Tampa, Florida from 2-4 November 2009. The purpose of the symposium was to gather information about the OSS model and to stimulate thinking on whether and how elements of that model might be applied to contemporary and future irregular warfare challenges. Specific areas of focus included authorities, organization, recruitment, selection and assessment, desired skill sets, training, command and control, communications, sustainment, and interagency collaboration.

U.S. Military Engagement with Mexico: Uneasy Past and Challenging Future
Issue Date: March 2010
File Size: 3.8MB
Dr. Graham Turbiville's account of U.S. military engagement with Mexico provides a broad account of the interaction among the military elements of both countries from 1846 to the present day. He describes the evolution of the Mexican military toward a more capable and modern force. Especially informative for the special operations reader is the advent of numerous special operations units within the military and some civil elements. As noted, this has fostered reciprocal opportunities for SOF training and education.

Afghanistan, Counterinsurgency, and the Indirect Approach
Issue Date: April 2010
File Size: 1.7MB
In exploring Counterinsurgency and the Indirect Approach, Dr. Thomas Henriksen assesses several cases where the United States has employed an Indirect Approach toward achieving strategic objectives, and he suggests where this concept has landed short of expectations. In the cases of Vietnam, Somalia, the Philippines, and other countries, he demonstrates that it is often difficult to fit the Indirect Approach doctrine into such a wide variety of strategic and operational environments.

2010 JSOU and NDIA SO/LIC Division Essays
Issue Date: May 2010
File Size: 2.8MB
The Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) partnered with the Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) in sponsoring the annual chapter essay contest. The first-place winner and runner-up are recognized each year at the NDIA SO/LIC Symposium in mid-February with monetary prizes and certificates. The competition is open to resident and nonresident students attend¬ing Professional Military Education (PME) institutions and has produced outstanding works on special operations issues. These essays provide current insights on what our PME students see as priority national security issues affecting special operations. Essay contestants can choose any topic related to special operations. Submissions include hard-hitting and relevant recommendations that many Special Operations Forces (SOF) commanders throughout United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) find very useful.

USSOCOM Research Topics 2011
Issue Date: June 2010
File Size: 1.7MB
The USSOCOM 2011 Research Topics list is intended to guide research projects for PME students, JSOU fac¬ulty, research fellows, and others writing about special operations during this academic year. Research is one of the cornerstones of JSOU’s aca¬demic mission as we strive to produce publications to meet joint SOF operational and planning needs. Each year rep¬resentatives from USSOCOM, the Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs), SOF chairs from the war colleges, and JSOU senior fellows develop a list of salient issues confronting SOF in the near term. The list is vetted through the components and TSOCs to ensure that research will advance SOF missions and support SOF interests. The final recommenda¬tions for research topics are approved by the USSOCOM commander. These topics, concepts, and processes reflect the challenges of win¬ning the current conflicts and meeting the needs for the conflicts most likely to face us in the foreseeable future.

Hezbollah: Social Services as a Source of Power
Issue Date: June 2010
File Size: 1.8MB
This monograph provides special oper¬ations readers with useful and important insights into how civic actions can achieve strategic objectives. The author uses Hezbollah as an illustration and reminder of this process by outlining the comprehensive activities of the Hezbollah Social Service Section as a precursor for success in Hezbollah’s political and military actions. The author estimates that about half of Hezbollah’s budget is dedicated to social services sectors such as health, veterans’ services, reconstruction and compensation, education, women’s groups, and even the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts (roughly analogous to the Boy Scouts). Such efforts are employed to capture the willing support of the people in order to further Hezbollah’s political aims. The concept is working, as Hezbollah has largely supplanted the Government of Lebanon in the southern part of that country while it continues to harass Israel and the West on the political-military front.