Commander's Corner

From The Commanding General

By Brigadier General Guillaume “Will” Beaurpere

Article published on: April 1, 2024 in the Army History Spring 2024 issue

Read Time: < 2 mins

Soldiers holding gps in hand and determines the location of coordinates.

I am excited about the depth of professional dialogue on ‘How ARSOF Fights’ in this edition. Our irregular approach is unique to the joint force and a critical component of the National Defense Strategy. This issue of Special Warfare will inform the Army and the wider Irregular Warfare (IW) community of interest on unique, asymmetric, and indirect Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) concepts and capabilities across the competition continuum.

It is important to remember that in our doctrine, Irregular Warfare often occurs in concert with conventional warfare and large-scale conflict. It is, therefore, imperative that IW be part of the core curriculum in all Army professional military education. We do not have the luxury of time to institutionalize IW. This is why the JFK Special Warfare Center and School is establishing the IW Academy to advance doctrine, training, and leader development for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the U.S. Army.

Our institution is also undertaking one of the most substantial revisions of ARSOF doctrine since 2014. The articles in this edition are directly influencing this review. With the advent of multidomain operations as the Army’s operating concept and similar domain warfighting concepts emerging in joint doctrine, our ARSOF capstone doctrine must align with multidomain operations while adapting to the changing character of warfare in the 21st century. Field Manual 3-05 will introduce the Irregular Approach and an operational framework to fill gaps in Army and joint doctrine. Our goal is to publish this manual by the Fall of 2024.

I encourage all of you reading Special Warfare today to contribute to the ongoing professional dialogue with your perspective on our profession by writing about it and submitting for publication and discussion. I also invite you to write about Irregular Warfare for the upcoming special edition of Military Review set for release in September.

— Veritas et Libertas —

“As we develop IW doctrine with the Army, a key point to capture is that IW occurs in concert with, or independent of, conventional warfare, but also spans the entire competition continuum. Effective IW campaigns take time, must be transregional, and cannot achieve advantage in a crisis if we have not prepared the environment.”
— Brigadier General Guillaume “Will” Beaurpere