Located within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD(P)), the ASD(SO/LIC) is responsible primarily for the overall supervision (to include oversight of policy and resources) of special operations and low-intensity conflict activities.

These activities, according to USSOCOM's 2007 Posture Statement, include counterterrorism; unconventional warfare; direct action; special reconnaissance; foreign internal defense; civil affairs, information operations, psychological operations, and counterproliferation of WMD.

This position was mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1987 (P.L.

The post's responsibilities for strategic capabilities and forces transformation were added as a result of USD(P) Eric Edelman's 2006 reorganization of the DoD policy office.

[1] The ASD(SO/LIC) is supported in his/her work by three Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Defense: In November 2020, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller announced that Christopher Maier, director of the wide ranging DoD Defeat-ISIS Task Force had resigned, and that the task-force director’s duties and responsibilities will be absorbed by the Office of the ASD (SO/LIC) and regional staffs of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.