Jessica Glicken Turnley

Dr. Turnley has contributed two papers addressing the community's interest on who we are and why we are successful in our operations. The two papers are titled Forward-Deployed Warrior Diplomats: SOF and Cross-Cultural Competence and Creating the Conditions for a Possible Masterpiece: Small Groups and Special Operations Forces. These two papers are combined for this monograph to provoke the community's thinking of who we are and how we are organized. The Forward-Deployed paper asserts that SOF effectiveness of "by, with, and through" depends on our skills as warrior diplomats. This focus includes our cultural understanding and language skills or cross-cultural competency. Her paper on Creating the Conditions for a Possible Masterpiece links the competency to SOF small units as a reason for special operation successes. SOCOM is promoting the concept of the 3-D warrior. The Ds are diplomacy, defense, and development, which are consistent with by, with, and through. The execution of the 3-Ds vary by the SOF component due to organization, mission, and unit structure. She explains the size issue of the unit in her Creating the Conditions for a Possible Masterpiece. Dr. Turnley makes several important points on cultural competency and its impact on mission. In addition to language skills, SOF warriors need to understand the culture of the supported nation. This understanding will afford the SOF warrior a higher probability of success in Dr. Turnley's model of force persuasion. She further develops her position by exploring the relationship between language, culture, and regional knowledge. She makes a crucial point about Internal Defense and Development (IDAD) for SOF. The difference between IDAD and foreign internal defense (FID) is that IDAD requires more cross-cultural skills than FID does. Any unit can conduct FID, but IDAD needs specialists-SOF troops. Dr. Turnley emphasizes this point in Creating the Conditions for a Possible Masterpiece by pointing out the key points from William McRaven's book, Spec Ops on the essential principles of special operations. Two of those principles seen as critical in IDAD are purpose and simplicity. SOF regional orientation realizes purpose and simplicity. This contributes to a focus that can stimu- x late a feeling of collective purpose. Their combination allows SOF units to work the IDAD campaign. Dr. Turnley's two papers cause us to reflect on who we are, what we should do, and how we are organized. Our understanding of cultural, language, and SOF core activities permit the collective conscience to become that 3-D warrior. Kenneth H. Poole, Ed.D., GS-14 Director, JSOU Strategic Studies Department

Why Sof Are the Way Sof Are

Cross-cultural Competence and Small Groups

Eyal Ben-Ari

Kobi Michael

This book sets out the major social scientific approaches to the study of Special Operations Forces. Despite consistent downsizing, over the past two decades the armed forces of the industrial democracies have seen a huge growth in Special Operations Forces (SOF). Through increasing numbers of personnel and more frequent deployments, SOF units have wielded considerable influence in conflicts around the world, with senior SOF officers having led major strategic operations. This increased presence and unprecedented expansion for SOF is largely a result of the ‘new’ kinds of conflicts that have emerged in the 21st century. At the same time, even with this high profile in the military, policy and media and popular cultural arenas, there is relatively little social scientific research on SOF. This volume aims to fill this gap by providing a series of studies and analyses of SOF across the globe, since the end of World War II. Analysing SOF at the micro, mezzo and macro levels provides broad and diverse insights. Moreover, the volume deals with new issues raised by the use of such forces that include emerging modes of civilian control, innovative organizational forms and the special psychological characteristics necessitated by SOF operatives. It concludes with a discussion of a question which continues to be debated in today’s militaries: what makes SOF ‘special’? Filling a clear gap in the literature, this book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, civil-military relations, irregular warfare, security studies, and international relations.

Jessica Glicken Turnley

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