The military as a learning organisation: establishing the fundamentals of best-practice in lessons-learned

The post-Cold War era has witnessed the rapid expansion of organisational learning initiatives within NATO militaries, especially formal “lessons-learned” processes. The effectiveness of national lessons-learned processes in recalibrating military activity to the demands of ongoing operations has been highly-differentiated. However, the academic literature on military change and practitioner guidance has been slow to investigate the key features of best-practice in military learning. This article breaks new ground by drawing upon the literature on dynamic organisational capabilities to explore the fundamental organisational processes and activities which are necessary to implement successful lessons-learned. It examines, in particular, the organisational features which facilitate “knowledge transformation”: the effective combination of new knowledge gained from intra- and inter-organisational learning with existing organisational knowledge. The article concludes by highlighting several potential future empirical and theoretical research agendas in military learning and the importance of engagement between lessons-learned practitioners and organisational learning scholars.     

Spaghetti: systems thinking and the US Army

In the mid-2000s, the United States Army was embroiled in counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that required deeper understanding of local social systems. The Army turned to systems thinking and design thinking to model and understand the world, define problems, and develop approaches to strategic and operational challenges. However, the Army’s approach as expressed in publications and doctrine encourages the development of complicated, unsupported, and unfalsifiable hypotheses. The risk is that the Army will act on incorrect assumptions and develop plans that are fragile.     

The market and the military profession: competition and change in the case of Sweden

The rise of private military and security companies (PMSCs) challenges our notion of military professionals. PMSCs bring new claims to professional status and legitimacy outside military institutions and represent an increasing diffusion of - and competition over - military and security expertise. In light of this development, understanding the formation of professional identities in military and private security organisations is as an important undertaking. This paper contributes to this endeavour by analysing professional self-images in the Swedish Armed Forces and how these relate to PMSCs. The study is based on data collected from official documents, semi-structured interviews and a small-scale survey among senior military officers. Focusing on military understandings of PMSCs and contractors, the analysis provides much-needed insight into relational aspects of professional identity formation outside the US context. Furthermore, it points to discrepancies in organisational and group levels in understandings of commercial security actors, and paves the way for future research.     

Whistleblowing in the Irish Military: The Cost of Exposing Bullying and Sexual Harassment

Whistleblowing has gained increasing media attention over the past 40 years, as incidents of abuse and wrongdoing associated with businesses, religious institutions, the media and politics have come to light. In this article, we investigate the consequences of a military whistleblower’s actions for both himself and the military institution that he was a part of. The case concerns former army officer Dr. Tom Clonan and his findings concerning the bullying and sexual harassment of female personnel in the Irish Defence Forces at the turn of the century. As these revelations came to light over 17 years ago we are able to examine their consequences for the military since that time.     

军事领域细粒度识别技术与应用

战争的信息化程度不断加深对军事侦察提出了更高要求.军事目标识别作为军事侦察的主要任务之一,需要能够处理细粒度军事目标,为人员提供更加详细的目标信息.但传统的粗粒度目标识别方法无法得到目标的细粒度信息.因此,如何识别细粒度目标成为目前军事侦察亟需解决的问题.针对该问题,本文结合军事领域的实际需求,对细粒度识别技术的发展现...     

【邀请论文】基于区块链环境的军队审计作业平台建设构想

在信息技术高速发展、社会经济水平不断进步的背景下,被审计单位经济活动日益复杂,军队审计要想全面履行监督职责,必须不断丰富手段方式,创新技术方法。区块链技术去中心化的特点有利于提高数据存储的完整性、可靠性,可追溯特点有利于验证信息的真实性,公开透明、不可篡改的特点正与审计对证据安全性的要求不谋而合,利用区块链智能合约可编程的特点还可以根据不同审计场景设计出智能、灵活、实时、全程的审计范式。为探究区块链技术与军队审计作业平台的结合应用,本文结合区块链技术特点和军队审计实际,在分析构建区块链环境下军队审计作业平台必要性和可行性的基础上,提出基于区块链环境的军队审计作业平台建设构想及保障措施,以助力军队审计信息化发展,加速军队审计现代化进程。     

军事云环境下基于动态博弈的资源调度方法

针对军事云环境下联合指挥资源调度优化问题,综合考虑了多部队任务需求,多目标优化,多部队资源竞争等约束条件,运用动态博弈理论及方法,建立并提出了一种基于完全信息扩展博弈的资源调度模型及方法,提高了资源调度效率,兼顾了多部队利益,增加了联合作战效益。最后通过实验验证了其有效性及准确性。     

The Clausewitzian fallacy of absolute war

Clausewitz was much preoccupied with the apparent contradiction between real and absolute war. Why did war in history so rarely exhibit the extremes of violence and energy implied in the pure concept of war? Clausewitz’s commentators have usually followed him in thinking that this was a genuine problem in need of a solution, but I want to question that view. I will argue that Clausewitz did not have a coherent philosophy of absolute war, and therefore the contradiction he posited between real and absolute war was equally meaningless – as, too, was his effort to resolve it by claiming that some real wars approached or even attained the absolute form of war. The real problem was not the opposition of real and absolute war, but the self-contradictory theory of absolute war.     

深入推进部队实战化基础训练

近年来,部队在实战化基础训练上下功夫,取得了一定成效,但还有相当一部分单位存在训得不全面、训得不规范、训得不精准、训得不娴熟的问题。解决这些问题,迫切需要从深化理论研究、聚焦实战要求、提升质量效益、加强监督问责等入手,加强实战化基础训练。     

美国陆军面向2010年发展规划概述

概述美国陆军现阶段实施的2010年发展战略规划,分析阐明美军制定和实行该规划理论基础和指导方针,陆军结构调整与改革的思路和实施的内容,在军队建设上如何充分发挥科学技术优势等.