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Wednesday - Main Agenda

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General Session: The SOF Value in Strategic Competition

10 May 2023
Marriott Water Street - Floor 2 - Grand Ballroom
General Sessions
Today’s focus in the SOF Week agenda is “Win.” The many terms we hear for winning in peace – “left of conflict,” “left of bang,” “below the threshold of armed conflict,” “the gray zone,” and “to win without fighting” – recognize that our greatest competitors actually see peace as war. This panel will discuss how we achieve successful deterrence – achieving our foreign policy aims without risking escalation, lives, and other resources. How does our nation win in peace? How does our military in general, and our Special Operations Forces in particular, contribute to achieving and sustaining such a peacetime win? What does successful campaigning (i.e., “the conduct and sequencing of logically-linked military initiatives aimed at advancing well-defined, strategy-aligned priorities over time” according to the 2022 National Defense Strategy) look like? How do we best cooperate and collaborate with partners in order to deter armed conflict? When war comes, SOF will be ready; today’s panel is about how we help our nation succeed in peace.
Chairperson
CAPTAIN (Ret.) John Burnham, Former DASD for Threat Reduction & Arms Control - U.S. Department of Defense
Speakers
General (Ret.) Vincent Brooks, Principal, WestExec Advisors and Former Sub-Unified Commander in Korea; Commander US Army Pacific; Commander US Army Central
Ms. Kimberly Field, Director J5, Strategy, Plans and Policy - U.S. Special Operations Command
Dr. Michael G. Vickers, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence - U.S. Department of Defense
Rear Admiral Jeromy Williams, Commander - U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific
Major General Steven Edwards, Commander - U.S. Special Operations Command Europe
Testimonials

  • We are extremely excited USSOCOM selected GSOF to co-sponsor its newly envisioned “SOF Week” in 2023. SOF Week will be a national convention for U.S. SOF and include a more diverse slate of programs, to include professional development sessions, operator-driven discussions, and family-focused conversations. In 2020, GSOF was designated as a National Military Association by the U.S. Department of Defense, and we look forward to working with USSOCOM to make “SOF Week” an impactful event.
    Stuart Bradin
    President and CEO, GSOF

DISCLAIMER

Co-sponsorship of this event does not imply endorsement of GSOF, its services, or products by the United States Government, the Department of Defense, or U.S. Special Operations Command.