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In the modern age of complex conflict, irregular warfare, and political competition, the Special Forces (SF) soldier must be more than a warrior. He must be a philosopher, strategist, and statesman who embodies the universal values of human dignity, freedom, and resilience. While the Enlightenment thinkers of the West provide one foundation for critical thinking and moral clarity, the Eastern philosophical traditions offer equally profound lessons that shape the intellectual and ethical framework of the modern SF soldier.
The special operations enterprise is facing a period of both significant change and significant opportunity. Special Operations Forces (SOF)-peculiar education, research, scholarship, and innovation will remain in increasingly high demand . JSOU is committed to being part of the solution—not just a center of learning, but a driver of innovation . To achieve this, we must ensure education and research work in tandem to equip SOF professionals with the intellectual tools needed for success
Violence in the world’s highest mountains is once again shedding light on the volatility of mountainous geography. Last May, old conflicts reignited over the disputed Kashmir region high in the Himalayan mountains. Settled only by a fragile ceasefire after a series of tense escalations between India and Pakistan, old deterrence logic has been challenged by two nuclear-armed states battling over the mountainous headwaters that feed the majority of their populations. Nearby, China continues a quiet campaign of damming and re-routing rivers in the high-altitude plains of Tibet to “steal” land from Nepal and threaten downstream countries in Southeast Asia.
How vulnerable is the continental United States to drone attack? Could a wily adversary cause vast destruction of military assets on U.S. soil at a fraction of the cost it would take to replace them? Ukraine and Israel’s stunning drone attacks against high value targets deep within Russia and Iran, respectively, in June 2025 raise serious questions about whether the United States homeland will remain a sanctuary. America has long enjoyed the advantages of favorable geography. Aside from nuclear-armed missiles, the continental United States has largely remained out of reach of conventional kinetic attacks from major adversaries.
The practice of irregular warfare has a checkered history when it comes to long-term outcomes. It is extremely difficult to forecast how fighting over the will and support of a population will lead to unintended consequences in the years and decades that follow any irregular warfare operation. The introduction of AI into the information-centric style of fighting is poised to increase the speed of irregular warfare beyond the ability of human operators to control, potentially damaging populations and causing irreversible second- and third-order effects at an unsustainable rate.
In the 21st century strategic landscape, unconventional warfare (UW) is not a relic of Cold War shadow conflicts. It is a vital instrument of national power: a disciplined, sophisticated, and intellectually demanding capability required to solve the most complex political-military problems (or assist in solving them alongside the Joint Force or Intelligence Community). In addition to solving problems, UW creates dilemmas for adversaries operating in the gray zone between peace and war. It is also a necessary capability before, during, and after large scale combat operations. It is, as many have long argued, a foundational component of the Special Forces identity and one of the three legs of what I call the “two SOF trinities.”
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