Joseph Gonnella

Terrorism Prevention: How Does Special Operations Fit In? Joseph Gonnella

The 2002 US national security strategy is a proactive, world integrated strategy against terrorism. The US chose to highlight preemption as a viable option to deal with terrorists or rogue states. The aim of this thesis is to address the planning and execution of this policy at the operational level with regard to prevention more so than preemption. As such, strategic and operational decisions regarding actions to be taken against impending terrorist threats will need to be made to prevent the onset of hostile acts against the US. The decisions to act will also incur associated military and political risks. Once possible terrorist activity is detected, the US may choose to use diplomatic, economic or informational means but often the only sure means of stopping terrorist attacks will be by military means. This thesis addresses the unanswered operational level questions regarding the US strategy as well as the preventive military actions that the US and regional combatant commander can take to effectively mitigate the use of terrorism against America. The primary focus revolves around Special Operations Forces (SOF) capabilities and the circumstances to use them, as well as finding out how they fit into the grand scheme of the war on terrorism.