Special Operations Research: Out of the Shadows Christopher Marsh School of Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA 5 James Kiras School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, USA Patricia Blocksome School of Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA 10 There has been a proliferation of special operations forces over the past twenty years as states seek to gain the status and capabilities that come from such units. While the importance of special operations seems apparent, research in the field is still very much in a nascent stage. The authors argue that a forum for the exchange of ideas is critical to the formation of a research community centered on special operations, and, furthermore, suggest that that the planning and conduct of special operations 15 can benefit from rigorous historical and social science research. While acknowledging that signifi- cant contributions in this regard have been made, they suggest that much of this research has remained limited in its reach and has not fostered a critical mass of scholarship in the field. They explain how the Special Operations Journal can become just such a forum and help achieve this and other objectives. 20 Keywords: special operations theory, social science, research methods, special operations forces Although what are today considered special operations can be traced back in time to the earliest recorded accounts of warfare, the conduct of modern special operations—and the formation of specially trained and equipped units, what we call special operations forces (SOF), as distinct from conventional operations and general purpose forces—is typically traced to World War II. 25 Most special operations units created during that war were subsequently disbanded and created anew as the need arose. The large-scale investment in and restructuring of SOF into more efficient organizational structures occurred in the American context only in the early 1980s, after the creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in 1987. Since that time special operators have proven their ability to conduct critical missions with speed and precision, Correspondence should be addressed to Christopher Marsh, School of Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 100 Stimson Avenue, Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027, USA. E-mail: christopher.marsh5@gmail.com Special Operations Journal, 1: 1–6, 2015 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 2329-6151 print / 2372-2657 online DOI: 10.1080/23296151.2015.1026779