Description
The contemporary international system encompasses complex security threats and rapid societal changes. Challenges such as terrorism, informational warfare, cybersecurity, nuclear proliferation, and great power competition affect how societies prepare and deploy armed forces. Hence, military change is a chief aspect of the contemporary world. Yet, why and how military organisations change and innovate is subject to substantial scholarly discussion as the militaries are complex, hierarchical, and conservative bureaucracies prepared to provide security and wage war. The international environment, technology, socialisation, strategic culture, bureaucratic competition, civil-military relations are just a few possible explanations to the issue. What factors drive change in contemporary military organisations? How have armed forces engaged in reforms worldwide? These are the questions this panel will address. Papers will focus on the issue of military change, military innovation, and defence reform from a cross-national, cross-regional, and multidisciplinary perspective. The panel presents a diverse set of theoretical approaches from different regions with distinct strategic cultures, historical paths, and patterns of civil-military relations—represented by the cases of France, Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Tunisia, and Turkey. The main goal is to explore societies and military organisations’ quest to innovate, improve efficiency, and develop effective defence and security apparatus from distinct perspectives.
