Special Operators: A Key Ingredient for Successful Peacekeeping Operations Management

Special Operators: A Key Ingredient for Successful Peacekeeping Operations Management

October 07, 2004

Multinational and regional alliances, as well as the Charter of the United Nations, include “terms that reflect a determination to provide an international institution that could control conflict” in the Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) spectrum of war.3 As a defense contractor employed by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, I recently had a unique opportunity to participate directly in the Military Observer Mission Ecuador and Peru (MOMEP), an LIC reduction operation conducted by conventional military forces with management influence by Special Operations Forces (SOF).The tenets of campaign analysis—e.g., military historical perspectives, force structure, command and control capabilities and military objectives—provide a paradigm to demonstrate clearly the effectiveness of this conflict management mission performed by SOF in accordance with the ten focus areas stipulated by John M. Collins in Special Operations Forces: An Assessment.4 The MOMEP Confidence Building Measure (CBM) was an example of SOF and conventional military force elements at their operational best. The Organization of American States (OAS), due to the actions of the SOF and conventional units assigned to MOMEP, would experience a successful CBM Peacekeeping Operation (PKO) in a regional context.