2026 Call for Special Operations Papers Results

CATEGORY 1: Professional military education (PME) students and military practitioners 

WINNING PAPER: Designing Fast, Adaptive AI Targeting Systems That Retain Human Judgment by Capt. Eli Talbert, PhD

SECOND PLACE: Back to the Mountains: Geospatial Data Analytics as a Strategic Tool for Irregular Warfare by Maj. Paul Rogers

THIRD PLACE: Architects of Fusion: A Mission-Focused Model for Rapid All-Domain Fusion for SOF by Maj. Scott C. Hall

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

SECOND PLACE: From Proxy Drone Warfare to Sahelian Adaptation: The Partner Defense Gap SOF Cannot Ignore by Maj. Imad Ammouri

THIRD PLACE: Harnessing Data for Irregular Warfare: Designing Resistance Networks in the Indo-Pacific by Flight Lt. Samuel Boff Bettison

CATEGORY 3: Academic faculty and civilian scholars

WINNING PAPER: AI-Facilitated Tactical Situational Awareness in a Synthetic SOF Raid: Using Structured Analytic Techniques to Improve Feasibility and Post-Mission Understanding by JP Sanchez

SECOND PLACE: The Adaptation Asymmetry: How Western Institutional Advantages Became Strategic Liabilities in AI-Enabled Warfare by Branko Ruzic

THIRD PLACE: Before the Shooting Starts: Harnessing Data Analytics for Early Warning in Irregular Warfare by Katelyn Smith, PhD, Bobby Albertini, BS, Autumn Bedell, BS, Thomas McAndrews, BS, Victor Oliveira, and John Borek, PhD

CATEGORY 4: Fiction

WINNING PAPER: The Glass Man: A Parable by Celia Hanley

SECOND PLACE: Toxic Shadows: A Useful Fiction of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives Convergence by Michael W. Parrott

THIRD PLACE: War, Inc. Commoditizing the Lethal Side of Great Power Competition, by Solon D. Webb

For more information, email CALLFORPAPERS@JSOU.EDU.