Section 3: Levelling the Playing Field

The primary threats CANSOFCOM must be prepared to counter and the vulnerabilities it must be poised to exploit are increasingly asymmetric in nature. These threats seek to divide Western alliances, to undermine multilateral frameworks and to sow distrust in democratic institutions by exploiting perceived limitations and weaknesses in our rules-based society. Accordingly, CANSOFCOM’s enduring relevance comes from its ability to enable the CAF, the Government of Canada and its allies to re-establish global frameworks in support of national interests, and in this way to help level the playing field.

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The Command does so by conducting special operations and delivering strategic SOF effects while also enabling the other military services and Joint forces, from within its distinct sphere of responsibility inside the strategic military environment.

From within its space, CANSOF

• shapes the environment through the generation and employment of SOF capabilities, and/or defends against asymmetric threats;
• enables military and national security partnerships to overcome converging threats by helping integrate respective efforts;
• leverages existing links with the conventional military services/joint forces and their national security partners;
• expands strategic military options through the use of capabilities and competencies that fall outside the scope of conventional military forces; and
• enables conventional military forces to operate more effectively through access, influence, understanding, and the delivery of precision effects.

In particular, CANSOFCOM acts as a “gaps and seams” force in the spaces between the national defence and security architectures, interfacing with the conventional military, between agencies, and with other government department partners. Moreover, the high-readiness nature of CANSOF capability fills temporal gaps in military response, broadening rapid intervention and contribution options for the CAF; faster intervention can often pre-empt later conflict by preventing or helping to mitigate any escalation.

Ultimately, the Command helps preserve the CAF’s and the Government of Canada’s freedom of action to counter the asymmetric threats of adversaries and competitors, by translating access and understanding into influence, options, and effects via attribution, projection, and protection.

• Attribution – Asymmetric activity is often undertaken by actors who wish to hide or obfuscate their involvement. Lack of clear attribution limits the spectrum of response options, including the use of force, whereas the ability to attribute activity to specific actors limits the freedom of action of those opponents. By helping to illuminate and understand nefarious activity, CANSOFCOM plays an important role in elevating actions out of the grey space, informing collective defence and security responses, supporting effective deterrence, and widening the Government’s latitude to respond.
• Projection – The power to hurt opponents at points of vulnerability through asymmetric SOF capabilities and the threat of the power to do so allows for a level of control in grey space conflict. When adversaries know how a scenario will end before it ever begins, they are deterred from engagement or escalation, whether through the threat of use of information; the creation of strategic leverage; or precise kinetic action. In this way, the projection of SOF Power helps preserve national freedom of action.
• Protection – Effective and active protection capabilities limit the options of an opponent while preserving Canada’s own national power. CANSOFCOM is able to help shield national systems from threats by recognizing and removing or mitigating the vulnerability points before they become liabilities, enhancing the overall level of collective national resilience.

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The Command does so by conducting special operations and delivering strategic SOF effects while also enabling the other military services and Joint forces, from within its distinct sphere of responsibility inside the strategic military environment.

From within its space, CANSOF

• shapes the environment through the generation and employment of SOF capabilities, and/or defends against asymmetric threats;
• enables military and national security partnerships to overcome converging threats by helping integrate respective efforts;
• leverages existing links with the conventional military services/joint forces and their national security partners;
• expands strategic military options through the use of capabilities and competencies that fall outside the scope of conventional military forces; and
• enables conventional military forces to operate more effectively through access, influence, understanding, and the delivery of precision effects.

In particular, CANSOFCOM acts as a “gaps and seams” force in the spaces between the national defence and security architectures, interfacing with the conventional military, between agencies, and with other government department partners. Moreover, the high-readiness nature of CANSOF capability fills temporal gaps in military response, broadening rapid intervention and contribution options for the CAF; faster intervention can often pre-empt later conflict by preventing or helping to mitigate any escalation.

Ultimately, the Command helps preserve the CAF’s and the Government of Canada’s freedom of action to counter the asymmetric threats of adversaries and competitors, by translating access and understanding into influence, options, and effects via attribution, projection, and protection.

• Attribution – Asymmetric activity is often undertaken by actors who wish to hide or obfuscate their involvement. Lack of clear attribution limits the spectrum of response options, including the use of force, whereas the ability to attribute activity to specific actors limits the freedom of action of those opponents. By helping to illuminate and understand nefarious activity, CANSOFCOM plays an important role in elevating actions out of the grey space, informing collective defence and security responses, supporting effective deterrence, and widening the Government’s latitude to respond.
• Projection – The power to hurt opponents at points of vulnerability through asymmetric SOF capabilities and the threat of the power to do so allows for a level of control in grey space conflict. When adversaries know how a scenario will end before it ever begins, they are deterred from engagement or escalation, whether through the threat of use of information; the creation of strategic leverage; or precise kinetic action. In this way, the projection of SOF Power helps preserve national freedom of action.
• Protection – Effective and active protection capabilities limit the options of an opponent while preserving Canada’s own national power. CANSOFCOM is able to help shield national systems from threats by recognizing and removing or mitigating the vulnerability points before they become liabilities, enhancing the overall level of collective national resilience.

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In sum, CANSOF plays a critical role in setting the conditions for favourable strategic outcomes within a wide variety of contexts ranging from competition to crisis to conflict. CANSOF does so through the iterative application of SOF Power, via the full suite of SOF capabilities, in order to both sustain and expand our own strategic options as well as to reduce the strategic options of our adversaries. Ultimately, this ability to shape the operational environment – including shaping both the battlespace and the adversary – can function either as the decisive operation itself or as the foundation for a future decisive operation.