Contemporary Military Innovation Between Anticipation and Adaption Cass Military Studies Series

This book explores contemporary military innovation, with a particular focus on the balance between anticipation and adaption.

The volume examines contemporary military thought and the doctrine that evolved around the thesis of a transformation in the character of war. Known as the Information-Technology Revolution in Military Affairs (IT-RMA), this innovation served as an intellectual foundation for the US defence transformation from the 1990s onwards. Since the mid-1990s, professional ideas generated within the American defence milieu have been further disseminated to military communities across the globe, with huge impact on the conduct of warfare.

With chapters written by leading scholars in this field, this work sheds light on RMAs in general and the IT-RMA in the US, in particular. The authors analyse how military practice and doctrines were developed on the basis of the IT-RMA ideas, how they were disseminated, and the implications of them in several countries and conflicts around the world.

This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, defence studies, war and technology, and security studies in general.

1. Introduction, Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky and Kjell Inge Bjerga 2. The ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’ as an Analytical Tool for the Interpretation of Military History, Azar Gat 3. What is Doctrine?, Harald Høiback 4. The Impact of the Office of Net Assessment on the American Military in the matter of the Revolution in Military Affairs, Stephen Peter Rosen 5. Restoring the Primacy of Battle: U.S. Military Theory and the RMA, Antulio J. Echevarria II 6. The Revolution in Military Affairs with Chinese Characteristics, Jacqueline Newmyer Deal 7. Military Innovation and Doctrine in a Small State, Kjell Inge Bjerga and Torunn Laugen Haaland 8. The Revolution in Military Affairs of the ‘Other Side’, Itai Brun and Carmit Valensi 9. Improving in War: Military Adaptation and the British in Helmand, 2006-2009, Theo Farrell 10. Innovation in the Crucible of War: Counterinsurgency Operations in Anbar and Ninewa, Iraq, 2005-2007, James A. Russell 11. Blitzkrieg, the RMA and Defense Intellectuals, Rolf Hobson 12. Conclusion: Between Anticipation and Adaption, Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky and Kjell Inge Bjerga

Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky is Assistant Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the IDC Herzliya, and Affiliate at the National Security Studies Program at Harvard University.

Kjell Inge Bjerga is Assistant Professor and head of Civil-Military Relations at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo.