THE ENEMY WITHIN. FUTURE SOF NEED TO FIGHT THEIR TOUGHEST ENEMY TO DATE, THEMSELVES

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how new risks associated with the organizational development of special operations forces should be best dealt with in a supplement to William McRaven's theory of relative superiority. The special operations’ forces structure is approaching the size of more conventional forces and a development of theories may be needed to address the growth challenges the organization is experiencing. The questions this thesis aims to answer are: How were the new risks present in Operation Neptune Spear and what were their consequences for the operation? How were these consequences managed? The research design contains a single case study based on text and process tracing methodology and analysis.The result of the thesis confirms that risk factors linked to organizational development can be traced in Operation Neptune Spear and therefore affects McRaven's theory. The author proposes a supplement to the theory in order to better manage these risks.