How do special operations forces (SOF) plan operations against threats delineated in the National Security Strategy that transcend the geographic and legal boundaries imposed by the Goldwater-Nichols Act and Unified Command Plan? The Department of Defense (DoD) requires, but does not have, an entity that connects,
integrates, and globally synchronizes irregular warfare across combatant commands and the interagency. The solution to fulfilling that requirement is to create an entity that can integrate and leverage all the instruments of national power, domestically within the U.S. and through international allies and partners throughout all phases of the conflict continuum.
In November 2021, the commanding general of U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) established a transregional irregular warfare task force to address gaps and seams being exploited by adversaries of the United States. Since its inception, this task force has garnered perspectives on planning and coordinating globally integrated irregular warfare. Since 2021, it has been assessed by the irregular warfare task force planners that conventional planning tools U.S. leaders use are rigid and not optimal in some problem sets. The DoD emphasizes traditional planning over the ingenuity, critical thinking, and flexibility required to compete in the irregular warfare space.
Novel solutions, integration of agencies outside of the military, leveraging multinational partners, and non-traditional planning methods employed in new ways are critical in preparing and synchronizing transregional irregular warfare effects.
Task force planners have observed the joint planning process and military decision-making process as stand-alone methods which are suboptimal to address the complexities of transregional irregular warfare. The planning methodologies do not account for the complexity of spatial, temporal,
and human variables when they are overlaid by threat streams that cross multiple combatant commands. In the same vein that T.E. Lawrence observed elements in his surrounding that were constants in his planning considerations, the authors suggest the following algebraic equation as a start point to conceptualize known variables that can be rapidly iterated on in a complex environment
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