The Politics of Special Forces The Kingston Consortium on International Security (KCIS)

For our tenth and final episode in this series, Kevin and I have a fascinating chat with two retired American Special Forces operators who now lead projects on technology, organizational culture, and decision making. Derek Jones and Dan Leaf join us to discuss the implications of a potential over-reliance upon technology within the special operations force community. They suggest that the idea of a hyper-connected operator will be challenged by the realities of peer and near-peer conflict and that we all need to become far more comfortable with operating without the comforts of constant communications. Indeed, we will see ourselves returning to a reliance upon initiative and trust. Are we ready?

In our ninth episode, we speak with the deputy commander of the Polish Territorial Defence Forces (TDF), Brigadier General Maciej Klisz. Our conversation examines what constitutes the TDF and draws connections between territorial defence and unconventional warfare, suggesting that territorial defence – especially in militaries that have focused on expeditionary operations, is in many ways a form of special operation.

This episode serves a primer of sorts for the role of special operations forces within the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). While the episode begins with a reflection and updated of the analytic framework that the guests first introduced in 2016, it turned into an incredibly valuable discussion on the origins of IDF SOF as well as the challenges facing this organization in the future. Indeed, this episode – for those who are not familiar with the IDF – provides a unique perspective to the way in which SOF is generated and employed today.

In this episode, our first for 2022, we had a fascinating discussion about the concept of narrative and how it relates to SOF employment concepts. Over the course of the conversation, Dave presents a working definition of narrative as a collection of ideas and concepts that codify meaning to events and behaviours. The conversation then directly connects narrative to the concept of special operations, making a cogent argument for a reconceptualization of what constitutes a special operation and even a special operation force.

In this episode, Kevin and I sit down with Erin Yantzi, a graduate student from the University of Waterloo who is conducting a unique sociological and anthropological examination of SOF culture. In this conversation, we discuss both the shaping effect of culture upon SOF organizations as well as how the concept of culture can be operationalized by leaders to improve unit – and indeed individual – performance.

We are back from our extended summer hiatus! In this episode, Kevin and I were blessed to be able to speak with the Deputy Commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), Brigadier General Steven Hunter. Over the course of our conversation, we do a deep dive into the question of Special Operations Forces integration. The conversation looked at how CANSOFCOM works within the Canadian context, with allies, and with partners. Several key take aways included the idea that SOF never works alone and that expanding SOF capabilities is something that needs to be done carefully and the caution that growth can come at the expense of agility.