The current state of world affairs is characterized by a new round of confrontation between the great Powers, which resulted from the desire of a number of countries to build a multipolar world that would take their interests into account on a broader basis. Naturally, such a course of events does not meet the interests of the United States, which seeks to retain its status as the sole superpower.

Economic development and the access to the latest information and technological innovations allowed Russia, China and Iran to create competitive warfare technologies and initiate the process of redistributing power and might across the Eurasian continent. In this regard, the U.S. armed forces in general, and the Special Operations Forces (SOF), in particular, started reorienting themselves from the operations to combat terrorists to the measures of countering the competing powers. The US SOF is playing an increasingly important role in the global competition with China, Russia and Iran, especially in the field of irregular warfare. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to analyze the possible ways for the United States to use the SOF units to deter its competitors.