Shaft of the Spear: US Special Operations Command, Funding Authority, and the Global War on Terrorism

摘要

The 1987 Nunn-Cohen Amendment to the Goldwater-Nichols Act formally created USSOCOM and established service-component support roles while providing substantial autonomy to include unique budget and acquisition authority for Special Operations Forces. The broad intent of these provisions was to create a more effective special operations capability that was not beholden to parochial service attitudes or constrained by service priorities for conventional forces. However since September 2001 USSOCOM's focus has shifted from force provider to that of Combatant Commander. Some now question whether USSOCOM should maintain separate funding authority for SOF-unique requirements or concentrate on warfighting and rely on the service components for all support. Others however have called for expanded USSOCOM fiscal authority to allow SOF to more effectively execute clandestine operations. While Congress partially addressed this issue with temporary provisions in the 2005 Defense Authorization Act a permanent solution is still lacking. USSOCOM must not only maintain its current SOF-unique funding authority but should also permanently retain the temporary fiscal authority to conduct paramilitary operations. USSOCOM must also work with the Department of Defense and Congress to establish effective oversight to ensure appropriate use of this authority.