The Population-Centric Turn in Special Operations: A Possible Way Ahead for SOF Informed by a Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of State-Building Interventions

ABSTRACT Post-Cold War liberal state-building interventions are characterized by a convergence of operational approaches rooted in counterinsurgency, state building and peace operations. A cross-disciplinary analysis of these operational approaches reveals a holistic framework consisting of initial, provisional, and durable control. Connecting this framework to the results found in case studies on liberal state-building interventions, it becomes clear that there are conceptual conflicts. Conceptual conflicts which have real-world consequences when it turns out that the requirements for initial, provisional, and durable control are difficult to reconcile in areas of operations. Such real-world consequences can be mitigated by having a thorough understanding of the societal context. Because the acquiring of understanding with regard to possible (near-future) intervention area’s is often hazardous and requires a specific skillset, Special Operations Forces (SOF) might be the entity most suitable for these kinds of activities. For this to happen, SOF will have to reorient and reorganize itself. This entails that it will have to partially shed the baggage it has collected during the last three decades.