Introduction: Recruiting and Organizing to Meet Future SOF Challenges

Abstract

Special Operations Forces (SOF) units have been in high demand over the past decades, and nothing indicates this will change in the near future. An oft-voiced concern within the SOF community is that the standards and requirements for joining an SOF unit are being lowered in order to fill expanding force structures. Physical strength, stamina, excellent marksmanship, and unorthodox problem solving remain at the core of SOF’s self-image and identity. But is it self-evident that these traits will remain essential? Looking ahead at a landscape of multiple, diverse, complex, and seemingly unpredictable threats, the contributions in this issue of the Special Operations Journal, surveyed below, suggest why and how SOF needs to diversify in terms of skills and talents in order to meet future challenges.