ABSTRACT
This work has demonstrated that understanding how special operations contribute to improving strategic performance is the cognitive lynchpin in preventing their misuse. Previous explanations of special operations misuse have centered on the divide that exists between conventional and unorthodox military minds. Conventional military thinkers, according to these accounts, are bound by dogma and doctrine and therefore do not account for the strengths and limitations of SOF. This means that SOF are committed to tasks that result in needless casualties for little apparent gain. While there is an element of truth in such assertions, they do not explain how or why some leaders have enthusiastically embraced special operations, much less why some leaders of SOF have lobbied for their forces to be used in ways that have subsequently proven disastrous. The central argument of this work is that understanding how SOF perform in extended campaigns, by inflicting moral and material attrition in conjunction with conventional forces, is crucial in order for special operations to be effective strategically.
