There is plenty of quality academic writing on how the relationship between the CIA and the United States’s special operations forces must evolve. Conventional wisdom has it that the CIA and SOF were so dedicated to counterterrorism operations since 9/11 that we collectively took our eyes off the ball in countering actions of state actors such as Russia and China, which we now term near-peer competitors.

I view this issue from the unique perspective of my old job as a CIA case officer in the field, where the rubber meets the road with a front-row seat to how we both collect intelligence and fight. I suggest that we look at the three Rs, relationships, resources, and Russia (and similar foes), as we assess the future CIA-SOF relationship.