Description
Under what conditions do states innovate or adapt through All-Female Military Units (AFMUs) in multinational interventions of the new century? AFMUs’ employment in operational theatres is an undeniable proof of the armed forces’ ground-breaking ability to transform. And yet, their study remains insufficiently investigated by the literature in Security Studies, both theoretically and empirically. To this end, this paper puts forward the ‘‘Innovation-Adaptation Theory’’ (AIT). AIT clarifies when states renovate or tailor their national military instrument to new operational demands. The qualitative study—based upon semi-structured interviews with Italian uniformed personnel deployed in Afghanistan and in Lebanon between 2010 and 2022 and a fieldwork at the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)—expands our understanding of how middle-European militaries, often neglected by traditional scholarship, may be both valuable sources of innovation and adaptation. To preview the conclusion, a higher state’s role of leadership in the mission increases chances to forging innovations. This variable is shaped, in turn, by Commanders’ perspicacity to leverage on lessons learned distilled from the past and wager on new potential solutions. By providing the first, fine-grained empirical analysis of two major instances of AFMUs—the Female Engagement Team (FET) and the Female Assessment/ Analysis Support Team (FAST)—I hope to further the debate on transformational dynamics within military organisations.
