Setting The Force: 10 Steps for Resolving The Special Forces “Identity Crisis”
by Robert C. Jones
10.29.2025 at 06:00am
Setting The Force: 10 Steps for Resolving The Special Forces “Identity Crisis” Image
The Evolution of the Special Forces ODA. Courtesy US Army magazine Veritas, Vol. 19, No.1 (2023).
If Special Forces has an “identity crisis,” it is because we misunderstood and mislabeled the problems we were sent to resolve, and applied solutions rooted in how the problems were labeled and defined, rather than for what they were. The world had changed, and revisionist actors of every ilk had stolen a march on those overly wedded to an obsolete playbook. For true change, we, as a Regiment, must first reframe the problem and then set out to reimagine more durable solutions.
The same changes fueling frustrating challenges and expanding threats reveal new insights as well. It is easy to write our struggles off as a result of complexity. It is easy to accept reactive, symptomatic measures as the best we can offer. Mitigate the violence, disrupt or defeat threats, and we’ve done our job. In addition to our own unilateral prowess, we excelled at training and equipping others to be tactically better as well. These are missions we excel at, and we are providing our nation with the special operations forces (SOF) that civilian leadership desires. But are we producing positive and enduring strategic results? Are we giving our nation the SOF it needs?
In my own experience, which includes engagements with literally thousands of senior SOF NCOs over 15 years of Joint Special Operations University Enlisted Academy engagements, I believe that a deep sense of frustration is likely at the heart of our “crisis.” With reframed problems and reimagined solutions, however, I believe strongly that the Special Forces Regiment can potentially become one of the most important tools in our nation’s policy toolkit. This is not a fix to be installed at the bottom of the formation. These are changes that demand support from key leaders at the General Officer level.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/10/29/solving-special-forces-identity-crisis/
