{"title":"Western and Eastern Ways of Special Warfare","authors":"Adam Leong Kok Wey","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1669006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1669006","url":null,"abstract":"Special operations were supposedly a new way of irregular warfare that was officially formed during World War II. This pointed to a paradoxical argument that modern-day special operations are a product of Western modern military innovation but utilizing Eastern ways of “ungentlemanly” warfare. This thesis is superfluous as special operations had been well practised by both ancient Western empires such as the Greeks and Romans, and around the same time in the East, such as in China, and Japan. This paper propounds that special operations, or ways of warfare as a whole, have no cultural and geographic divide, but rather very similarly practiced by men from all over the world in attempts to win economically and efficiently.","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133943332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall: America’s Greatest Spy of World War II","authors":"Trisha E. Wyman","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1667140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1667140","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129915109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Female Specialists as Operational Enablers for Special Operations Forces? – A Pilot Study among Danish Military Linguists","authors":"Rikke Haugegaard","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1581435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1581435","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to show the many ways gender are important when performing the role as military interpreter/cultural advisor as a specialist attached to a SOF team. Based on interviews with male and female specialists and SOF operators in an exploratory pilot study conducted in Denmark, the article discusses female specialists as “the newcomers” in SOF. Female specialists navigate their gender identity in order to obtain acceptance in the team. The operational advantage of deploying female specialists with SOF teams is their ability to “constitute no threat” to men around them. The data in this study suggest that female specialists can facilitate better communication between parties in operations. The article argues that concerns over the female specialist as an object for overwhelming male attention can be substituted with her role as a competent professional soldier.","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128405678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advancing A Confused Subfield: A Review of Crenshaw and LaFree’s Countering Terrorism","authors":"Philip Hultquist","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1586350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1586350","url":null,"abstract":"The subfield of terrorism studies remains confused about its principal concept. Few agree on what the term means, which creates obvious problems for operationalization. Crenshaw and LaFree (2016) address this issue directly and find a way to advance the subfield by offering unique analytical insights. They further our knowledge of the rarity of terrorist plots as well as the method for how most are thwarted. Moreover, they provide a fruitful critique of government overclassification of data that makes the production of sound policy-relevant research difficult, which has the perverse effect of making counterterrorism less effective. Nonetheless, the book suffers from conceptual confusion about the tactic of terrorism when it limits its primary scope to a subset of groups that use the tactic frequently, but not exclusively—that is, those Salafi groups that use an extremist interpretation of the term jihad. The book should be read widely, by researchers and practitioners, to learn from its insights, but also critically in the hope that future work can advance this subfield to examine terrorism for the full range of ideological groups who use the tactic.","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128987009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Why Make a Special Platoon for Women?”","authors":"F. Steder, Nina Rones","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1581434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1581434","url":null,"abstract":"In 2014, the Norwegian Special Operations Commando (NORSOC) established a pilot project named “Jegertroppen” (the Hunter Troop) to recruit more women for operative military service. This unusual approach, integration of women by separating men and women during education, brought national and international attention, including admiration and wonder. This article explores why NORSOC segregated male and female operators, and assess the effectiveness of the segregated approach for recruiting, selecting, and retaining female operators.","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122479086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diversity and SOF: Boon or Bane?","authors":"Anna Simons","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1581431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1581431","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that while SOF combat elements cannot be made more inclusive, the overall SOF enterprise can. While diversity for diversity’s sake might appear to promise certain advantages, it introduces real sources of concern. These must be carefully considered. But so, too, should the need for combat interchangeability and reflexive trust among operators. Consequently, although SOF combat units may not be able to change in quite the ways that proponents of diversity and gender integration would prefer, successful application of 21st century warfare will require more than just operators, especially since organizations should stay together for longer than a single rotation. It is here where heterogeneity should come into its own, and there are historical precedents for this such as Detachment 101 (an Office of Strategic Services unit during World War II).","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"125 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131631987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Funhouse Mirrors: Reflections of Females in Special Operations Forces","authors":"J. Turnley","doi":"10.1080/23296151.2019.1581429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23296151.2019.1581429","url":null,"abstract":"The capability of SOF operators is a reflection of the perceived value the individual brings to a small team setting. Cohesion within the team is partially a function of the identity of each team member, which influences the degree of integration. This article argues that forcing integration based on sex or gender alone overlooks the multiple potential identities of female special operators and of the teams themselves. The article explores some of the different natures of social identity, including negotiated, positional, and intersectional. These natures suggest identity is a more complex and elusive than how the term “gender” is often interpreted and broadens the application of this discussion to include related issues of the integration of any socioculturally defined groups, such as those defined by race, ethnicity, or religion, into any special operations unit. The article argues that identity constructs have and can be manipulated in a military service as well as in the battlespace, and suggests areas for additional research to identify new ways to leverage different perceptions of self and Other to help accomplish SOF missions.","PeriodicalId":276818,"journal":{"name":"Special Operations Journal","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129080132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}