Lessons from 13 Years of War

During the past 13 years of war, U.S. conventional and special operations forces worked more closely together than in any previous conflict. How can the U.S. apply the broad lessons of these years to a future strategy for confronting threats that are short of full-fledged combat? Linda Robinson is the author of a book on village stability operations titled One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare as well as a Council on Foreign Relations report on the future of special operations forces. She discusses what we've learned and how special operations forces could be used in current conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Featured Speaker

Linda Robinson is a senior international policy analyst at RAND, chair of the Army War College board, and a senior fellow at Joint Special Operations University. She was senior adviser to the AFPAK Center at USCENTCOM (2010–11). A paperback version of her 2013 book, One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare, has just been released. She is also the author of Tell Me How This Ends, Masters of Chaos, and Intervention or Neglect.