“There is a clear recognition that developing enduring partnerships is a key component of our long-term military strategy. It is hard, slow, and methodical work that does not lend itself to a quick win. Instead, it is about patience, persistence, and building trust with our partners – a trust that cannot be achieved through episodic deployments or chance contacts. Special operations leaders always have known that you can’t surge trust. Trust is developed over years by personal one-on-one interaction,” McRaven said.

“These partnerships give us our strength, based on a trust forged of mutual hardships, common cause, and shared ties. These relationships, built on trust, have clearly paved the way for greater security to counter regional challenges before they become global problems.

“Enduring success can only be achieved through the application of indirect operations, with an emphasis in building partner-nation capacity and mitigating the conditions that make populations susceptible to extremist ideologies. The increased level of trust and friendship has greatly expanded our network. This is what will provide the best defense for the homeland and for our partners abroad,” McRaven said.

And what does McRaven see resulting from the Global SOF Network, even though it will probably not be completed prior to his leaving command of SOCOM? McRaven likes to base his responses firmly on the realities at hand and within sight in the future.

“In January 2012, the secretary of Defense issued his Defense Strategic Guidance and describes the joint force of the future as ‘agile, flexible, ready.’ SOF, by their nature, already meet the criteria, and thus will play an increasingly critical role in the joint force of the future,” McRaven said.

“SOF are an integral part of the geographic combatant commanders’ strategy. As a sub-unified command under the GCC, the Theater Special Operations Commands [TSOCs] serve as their primary command and control node for special operations in theaters. Simply put, the TSOCs are the center of gravity for SOF in theater, and if we want to adequately address current and emerging challenges with a SOF solution, we need to increase their capability.

“The goal is to increase the capacity and capabilities of the TSOCs and their assigned forces to the GCCs to conduct full spectrum special operations – ranging from building partner capacity to irregular warfare and counterterrorism. We aim to provide GCCs and COMs with improved special operations capacity and are aligning structures, processes, and authorities that enable the network.”

While the Global SOF Network represents a “first draft” of what U.S. and allied SOF may look and operate like a decade from now, SOCOM has a real roadmap to follow. It now is up to the entire SOCOM community to try to make the Global SOF Initiative into reality.