Along with the development of today’s warfare the use of special operations as an overall asset has increased. Due to this, the request for scientific built theory has also increased. One of the most cited theories of special operations is developed by William McRaven. His theory is used by many other researchers and the principles that he has developed can be traced all the way to the Swedish Doctrine. According to McRaven these principles, if used correct, will increase the probability of a positive outcome in an operation. But what if this highly regarded principles won´t work for the operations it´s supposed to be applicable on? This research aims to falsify McRavens theory by testing it on two successful special operations. The result has shown that McRavens theory is applicable on one of the operations but not on the other. McRavens theory has been considerably weakened by this result and one conclusion is that the theory might not be as relevant for today´s operations as it was for the operations that were examined for his study.

Special operations are those operations that conventional units are not considered capable of preforming. Although the importance of special operations has increased, there are limited theories about these operations. Furthermore, the theories that do exist are considered too low empirically tested. In addition, there is a debate about whether more theories about special operations should be developed or whether there are enough theories for research of special operations. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this debate. To do this, Leong Kok Wey's theory is tested against two cases.  Wey uses 2,000-year-old principles to explain how a special operation should be successful. The method used is a theory-testing two-case study where the cases are examined based on qualitative text analysis. The two selected cases are Operation Deadstick, the British airborne assault during D-Day, and Operation Prelim, the British SAS sabotage of eleven aircraft during the Falklands War. Both cases are considered successful special operations. The results show that most of the principles can be identified in both cases and therefor strengthens Wey’s theory. However, one of the principles cannot be identified at all in any of the cases.