Filling the void: In search of special operations theory

ABSTRACT The recent surge in the academic study of special operations is welcome as special operations forces are much used but under-theorised. This essay explores James Kiras’ Special Operations Success, Ben Gans’ Special Operations and National Security, and Kiras and Martijn Kitzen’s Into the Void to assess different approaches to such theorising and their levels of success. Kiras provides a general descriptive theory of special operations of real value. However, attempts to generate broad prescriptive theories seem unlikely to succeed; smaller-scale work looking at individual aspects of special operations appears to be the best way forward for the field, especially if the work is to be of value to practitioners as well as academics.