Featured Publications
2026 Special Operations Research Topics: Academic Year 2027 Addendum
Echoes of Little Bighorn: Insights for SOF Success
Leveraging Social Media Intelligence and Open-Source Intelligence for AI-Driven Predictive Analytics in Irregular Warfare
Welcome to the JSOU Press
JSOU Press is the scholarly publishing arm of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). We are USSOCOM’s go-to publisher for research of interest to the Special Operations Forces (SOF) community. We pride ourselves on our unique ability to put knowledge into the hands of SOF professionals and aim to inform national policy and strategy with quality research. Since our inception in 2004, we have edited and published more than 250 peer-reviewed scholarly monographs, edited volumes, reference manuals, occasional papers, and quick looks. The works included here are solely the ideas of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of USSOCOM or the Joint Special Operations University.
RESULTS
The AY2026 Call for Special Operations Papers wrapped up May 18, 2026, with a ceremony at SOF Week recognizing the four category winners. The program was a “catastrophic success” for JSOU this year, with 83 submissions across four categories. Topics were focused on technology in SOF and explored ideas relevant to the SOF enterprise including machine learning and artificial intelligence; the space/cyber/SOF nexus; ethical, legal, and operational challenges of AI-driven warfare; harnessing data for irregular warfare; and more.
The winning papers from each category are linked below. These submissions, plus additional top-scoring papers, will be published in a series of print edited volumes later this year.
CATEGORY 1: Professional military education students and military practitioners
WINNING PAPER: Designing Fast, Adaptive AI Targeting Systems That Retain Human Judgment by Capt. Eli Talbert, PhD
CATEGORY 2: International allies and partners
WINNING PAPER: Beyond the Golden Hour: Autonomous Logistics and Air-Ground Teaming in Denied-Access Environments by Irakli Kharebashvili
CATEGORY 3: Academic faculty and civilian scholars
CATEGORY 4: Fiction
WINNING PAPER: The Glass Man: A Parable by Celia Hanley
In early June, the JSOU Press published a 2027 Addendum to the 2026 Special Operations Research Topics booklet. Check out the top three papers in each category and stay tuned to JSOU’s Call for Papers page for information about next year’s Call for Papers topics!
MISSION
The Joint Special Operations University Press supports JSOU and the U.S. Special Operations Command by publishing open-access materials that address topics relevant to the SOF enterprise. Research into priorities unique to the special operations enterprise helps provide new and creative solutions in support of command priorities.
VISION
The JSOU Press publishes materials developed specifically for and unique to the special operations enterprise worldwide. Topics include irregular warfare, counterintelligence, insurgency, resistance and resilience, psychological operations, strategic competition, counterterrorism, and more. Publishing researched-based academic works provides valuable information that addresses concerns of critical importance to U.S. Special Operations Command and Department of Defense leadership.
Recent Publications
Operation LOCK-IN
2026 Special Operations Research Topics: Academic Year 2027 Addendum
Echoes of Little Bighorn: Insights for SOF Success
Leveraging Social Media Intelligence and Open-Source Intelligence for AI-Driven Predictive Analytics in Irregular Warfare
The Perils of Misconception: Why U.S. Strategy Misjudges the Nature of Proxy Resistance
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) POLICY
JSOU copyright and plagiarism guidance protects original and creative works, both published and unpublished, which have been fixed in tangible medium. It is unacceptable to submit generative AI as one’s own work. Anyone submitting a paper for JSOU Press publication consideration, including JSOU students, faculty, and staff, MUST disclose use of generative AI in their work, including text generation and image generation, and cite it properly. An AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot) is not considered an author but rather a source and should be cited as such. Authors should verify AI output with credible sources and cite those sources, not the generative AI. Failure to properly attribute the use of generative AI is considered plagiarism.