This blog was written by Stu Bradin, President and CEO of the Global SOF Foundation.
Across the globe people celebrated the arrival of 2023. The new year always starts with forecasts about what the future holds and some of those predictions are spot on…but many of them are a stretch and a lot are dead wrong.
As they say, one thing that is certain is that the world is anything but certain. Each year as I look at the global security landscape, I reflect on those predictions and seek to find a clearer understanding of the trends and activities in global security.
Current SOF Landscape
The Russian invasion of Ukraine with conventional forces was met by the Ukraine armed forces using a mixed defense in what can certainly be called “Irregular Warfare”. The impact of Ukraine’s autonomous systems, precision weapons, and irregular forces has proven that the conventional platforms that still dominate most militaries will struggle to survive in modern warfare.
Another certainty is that inflation has ravaged the global economy and many nations are looking at a recession. No doubt this will impact their ability to resource their armed forces, and it will require policymakers to make tough decisions.
Many policymakers do not understand modern warfare and believe SOF only does counterterrorism. Those leaders believe SOF has had its time in the sun and has no role in near-peer conflicts–they could not be further from the truth.
Educating US Policymakers
In an effort to help educate policymakers, the Global SOF Foundation releases an annual SOF Imperatives Document highlighting critical challenges to the SOF community. We have released this document each year since 2015.
You can see all of the previous documents at the link below:
https://gsofimperatives.org/sof-imperatives-documents/
Topics included in these documents focus on the current and future fight, but also issues that are tangentially impactful such as warfighter health, transition assistance, readiness, and more.
In 2023 GSOF will release the SOF Imperatives Document at the SOF Imperatives Forum on 31 January 2023 at the Capitol Hill Visitors Center in Washington, DC.
2023 SOF Imperatives Forum
If you want to participate in our education of US policymakers, then join us at the SOF Imperatives Forum.
This will mark the first time we are holding this event in person since the inaugural forum in February 2020 (yes, it was a COVID19 buzzer beater).
We are really excited about the event lineup. Confirmed speakers include:
- General Daniel Petrescu, Chief of Defence, Romania
- Lieutenant General Francis L. Donovan, Vice Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command
- Lieutenant General Dr. Romulus Ruszin-Szendi, Commander, Hungarian Defense Forces
- COL Sean Berg, Deputy Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific
- Mr. Peter Bergen, Chairperson of the Board, Global SOF Foundation
- Ms. Catherine Herridge, CBS
We also expect more participation for the Congressional SOF Caucuses to be confirmed soon.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to see SOF policy impacted right in the capital of the United States. Register to attend today!
PS: If you’d like even more participation, there are still sponsorships available (which include a special VIP event and reception on 30 JAN).
Learn more:
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