"Analysis have heralded the qualitative improvement in military technology, operational concepts, and weapons that transforms the nature and character of warfare as a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). However, discussions focusing on military technology too often ignore the role of military organizations in improving combat capability. They downplay the difficulties of coordinating many people and offices having specialized roles, and the challenges of calculation, attention, and memory that face individuals making decisions with inadequate or ambiguous information under short deadlines or in stressful situations. Mark Mandeles argues that the key to future combat effectiveness is not in acquiring new technologies but rather in the defence Department’s institutional and organizational structure and its effect upon incentives to invent, to innovate, and to conduct operations effectively. Doing so requires the military establishment to resists substituting short-term technological gains for effective long-term innovation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mark D. Mandeles
Dr. Mark D. Mandeles formed The J. DE Bloch Group, an independent consulting company, in 1993 to examine a wide range of national security and foreign policy issues. In this capacity, he has consulted for the Director of net Assessment, the director of Force Transformation, the Under secretary of defence for Policy, Center for Naval Analyses, other defence department agencies and private industry. He has published essays, articles, and reviews on command and control, naval weapons acquisition, professional military education, military doctrine, nuclear strategy, military innovation, the revolution in military affairs, and ballistic missile and nuclear weapons proliferation. With Thomas C. Hone and Norman Friedman, he co-wrote American and British Aircraft Carrier development, 1919-1941, published by the Naval Institute press. With Thomas C. Hone and Sanford S. terry, he co-wrote Managing "Command and Control" in the Persian Gulf War published by Praeger. He also wrote the development of the B-52 and jet Propulsion published by Air university press, dr. Mandeles lives in Fairfax, Virginia.
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