Fixing Oversight of Special Operations Forces
David Barno and Nora Bensahel
June 15, 2021
Special Series - Strategic Outpost
U.S. special operations forces have leapt out of the shadows during the last 20 years of war. They have become the best known and most acclaimed part of the U.S. military, and their capabilities will remain crucial in an era of great-power competition and strategic uncertainty. Yet their growth in prestige, size, and importance has come at a cost. As we’ve written, a growing range of disciplinary and entitlement issues have marred the reputation of these elite warriors, prompting widespread concerns and a recent comprehensive review of the culture and ethics of the force. Defense analysts, former special operations leaders, and even Congress have all concluded that civilian oversight of special operators needs to improve, but recent efforts to do so have not gone far enough. In order to fix this problem, we suggest a novel solution: give the secretary of the Army responsibility for overseeing special operations forces.
U.S. Special Operations Command was established by Congress in 1986 to strengthen the role of special operations, and it was deliberately designed to have many of the characteristics of a standalone military service. It is the only combatant command with its own budget and acquisition authority, which helps to protect special operations forces from the type of parochial attacks by the military services that have decimated special operations capabilities in the past, especially in times of declining budgets. Though special operators today join and serve in one of the four traditional military services, Special Operations Command nevertheless acts like a service by organizing, training, and equipping special operations forces for their unique missions. Yet Special Operations Command and the forces that it commands routinely operate with far less civilian oversight than the services do.
https://warontherocks.com/2021/06/fixing-oversight-of-special-operations-forces/
