Special Operations

The end of communism changed the global strategic environment marked by a bipolar world and replaced it with uncertainty and a readily defined threat. Over a relatively short period of time, a multipolar world began to emerge while academia and the military continued to debate the identity of the future threat. The military began to transform to meet the uncertainty of the future while attempting to maintain a capability to meet conventional threats. As tension continued in the Middle East and attacks continued against U.S. interests, the events of 11 September 2001 presented a clear and present danger to the United States and punctuated the identity of the threat in the new strategic environment. To frame the problem of how to transform the Department of Defense, meeting the competing demands on the military required a review of change theory, history of changes, and doctrine to assist with this challenging new environment. It is clearly evident that the Cold War military was not trained or organized for success to meet its future requirements. Changing the military meant characterizing the types of change and choosing the one most suited for this situation. The last time the global strategic environment shifted was at the end of the Second World War when a bipolar world emerged with the United States on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. The Air Force was created as a separate Service from the Army Air Corps as its final evolutionary step towards autonomy. Looking at the historical evolution of the Air Force as a case study presented evidence that special operations was also an evolution of a force with the unique capability to meet the strategy needs in the Global War on Terrorism, and other global insurgency threats in the new multipolar environmental setting. The answer to the requirements for the future does not exist in current or previous doctrine. The solution requires a new Service that is trained, manned, and equipped to lead the strategy requir