SOF Partner Assessment

Introduction to Country Characteristics

by Angela O'Mahony, William Welser IV, Thomas S. Szayna

U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has developed and put forth its Global SOF Network vision, which calls for a distributed overseas posture for Special Operations Forces (SOF). In order to help the United States Special Operations Command identify countries to participate in the Global SOF Network, researchers needed to assess countries' political attractiveness and reliability as SOF partners comparatively, objectively, and transparently. Part one of a four-part video series describes how three consistent, multidimensional metrics were established to do so: foreign relations with the United States, state stability, and domestic political environment. Parts two, three, and four describe each of these metrics in detail. This video podcast series is based on research for USSOCOM that is not available to the general public.

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