Successful Military Innovation Essay examples -- Military History

The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and subsequently the collapse of the Soviet empire changed the political – military situation within Europe. Nearly five decades of Cold War between the Western Alliance and the Warsaw Pact countries, with relatively large standing armies and prepared mobilization plans, ended. The fight between large mechanized formations on European countryside became more and more improbable, and forced many Western countries to identify a new role for their armed forces as new threats emerged. Yet, those military organizations often struggle with such doctrinal innovations, especially in economic austere conditions combined with rapidly technological improvements. While such strategic situations determine the environment in which the military operates, ultimately people lay the foundations for a new approach. Therefore, successful innovation within a military organization depends on aligning political and military strategy, creating a learning organizati on, and assuring popular support to the military. This essay identifies principles that induce change on organizational level based upon examples from the interwar period, and has not the intention to discuss neither tactical nor technical changes in detail. Such an essay would require more in depth study that draws us away from the initial argument. Without a doubt, during the interwar period almost all military organizations reformed, based on their lessons learned from World War I, and each of them booked significant advances in certain domains. Nonetheless, some organizations as a whole proved to possess more adaptive skills than others. Above all, innovations within military organizations depend on the integration of political and military vision. ... ... The Challenge of Change: Military Institutions and New Realities, 1918-1941†. Edited by Harold R. Winton and David R. Mets (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 37-41. Williamson, Murray. â€Å"Armored Warfare: The British, French, and German Experience†, in Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. Edited by Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millet (Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 22-24. Eugene, C. Kiesling in The Challenge of Change: Military Institutions and New Realities, 1918-1941†. Edited by Harold R. Winton and David R. Mets (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 3 and 10-11. Murray, op. cit., 14-15. Ibid, 9. Ibid, 13. House. Towards Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of Tactics, Doctrine and Organization in the 20th Century. 66. Murray, op. cit., 17. Ibid, 24-25. Murray, op. cit., 125-127 and 139.