17.462
Innovation in Military Organizations
Fall 2005
This seminar has three purposes. One, it inquires into the causes of military innovation by examining a number of the most outstanding historical cases. Two, it views military innovations through the lens of organization theory to develop generalizations about the innovation process within militaries. Three, it uses the empirical study of military innovations as a way to examine the strength and credibility of hypotheses that organization theorists have generated about innovation in non-military organizations.
Readings
- Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1991. ISBN: 9780465007851.
- Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator’s Dilemma . New York, NY: HarperBusiness Essentials, 2003. ISBN: 9780060521998.
- Krepinevich, Andrew. The Army and Vietnam . Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780801836572.
- Wilson, James Q. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1991, chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 12. ISBN: 9780465007851.
- Wilson, James Q., and Peter Clark. “Incentive Systems: A Theory of Organization.” Administrative Science Quarterly 6 (1961): 129-166.
- Guillen, Mauro F. “The Age of Eclecticism: Current Organizational Trends and the Evolution of Managerial Models.” Sloan Management Review (Fall 1994): 75-86.
- Huntington, Samuel P. “Officership as a Profession,” and “The Military Mind: Conservative Realism of the Professional Military Ethic.” Chapters 1 and 3 in The Soldier and the State . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1981, pp. 7-18 and 59-79. ISBN: 9780674817364.
- Janowitz, Morris. “Technology and Decision-Making,” “Discipline and Combat Goals,” and “The Military Hierarchy.” Chapters 2, 3, and 4 in The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait . New York, NY: Free Press, 1964, pp. 21-37, 38-53, and 54-75.
- Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold, and Joseph L. Galloway. “Into the Valley,” and “The Storm of Battle.” Chapters 5 and 8 in We Were Soldiers Once…and Young . New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1993, pp. 55-64, and 92-105. ISBN: 9780060975760.
- Wilson, James Q. “Innovation in Organization: Notes Towards a Theory.” In Approaches to Organizational Design . Edited by James D. Thompson. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966, pp. 195-218. LCCN: 65-26336.
- Posen, Barry R. “The Importance of Military Doctrine,” and “Explaining Military Doctrine.” Chapters 1 and 2 in The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984, pp. 13-33, and 34-80. ISBN: 9780801416330.
- Rosen, Stephen P. Winning the Next War . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994, chapters 1 and 9, pp. 1-55 and 251-262. ISBN: 9780801481963.
- Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator’s Dilemma . New York, NY: HarperCollins Business Essentials, 2003, pp. 1-96, and 187-212. ISBN: 9780060521998.
- Sapolsky, Harvey M. “On the Theory of Military Innovation.” Breakthroughs 9, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 35-39.
- MacIsaac, David. “Voices from the Central Blue: The Air Power Theorists.” In Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 624-647. ISBN: 9780691027647.
- Werrell, Kenneth P. “The Strategic Bombing of Germany in World War II: Costs and Accomplishments.” Journal of American History (December 1986): 702-713.
- Quester, George H. “The Impact of Strategic Air Warfare.” Armed Forces and Society 4, no. 2 (February 1978): 179-205.
- Cohen, Eliot A. “The Mystique of U.S. Air Power.” Foreign Affairs 73, no. 1 (1994): 109-124.
- Meilinger, Phillip S. “Air Targeting Strategies: An Overview.” In Air Power Confronts an Unstable World . Edited by Richard Hallion. London, UK: Brasseys, 1997, pp. 51-80. ISBN: 9781857532388.
- Sapolsky, Harvey, and Jeremy Shapiro. “Casualties, Technology and America’s Future Wars.” Parameters 26, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 119-127.
- Smith, Thomas. “The New Law of War: Legitimizing Hi-Tech and Infrastructural Violence.” International Studies Quarterly 46 (2002): 355-374.
- Beier, J. Marshall. “Discriminating Tastes: ‘Smart’ Bombs, Non-Combatants, and Notions of Legitimacy in Warfare.” Security Dialogue 34, no. 4 (2003): 411-425.
- House, Captain Jonathan M. “The Interwar Period.” Chapter 3 in Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization . Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1984, pp. 43-78.
- Bond, Brian. “Mechanization: The Second Phase, 1933-39.” Chapter 6 in British Military Policy between the Two World Wars . Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1980, pp. 161-190. ISBN: 9780198224648.
- Larson, Robert H. “The Years of Experiment: 1927-34.” Chapter 5 in The British Army and the Theory of Armored Warfare, 1918-1940 . Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1984, pp. 132-170. ISBN: 9780874132199.
- Cooper, Mathew. “The Battle for Ideas.” Part II in The German Army: 1933-1945 . New York, NY: Stein and Day, 1978, pp. 113-166. ISBN: 9780812824681.
- Johnson, David E. “Alternatives for Armor.” Chapter 10 in Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the U.S. Army 1917-1945 . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998, pp. 116-152. ISBN: 9780801434587.
- Horowitz, Dan. “Flexible Responsiveness and Military Strategy: The Case of the Israeli Army.” Policy Sciences 1 (1970): 191-205.
- Griffith, Paddy. “Conclusions.” Chapter 11 in Battle Tactics of the Western Front . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 192-200. ISBN: 9780300066630.
- Hallion, Richard P. “The Genesis of Anglo-American Air Support: The British Experience in the Western Desert,” and “The Necessary Interlude: Doctrine and the American Experience in the Pacific, Tunisian, and Italian Campaigns.” Chapters 12 and 13 in Strike from the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1911-1945 . Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, pp. 149-162 and 163-187. ISBN: 9780874744521.
- Muller, Richard. “Close Air Support: The German, British, and American Experiences.” In Military Innovation in the Interwar Period . Edited by Williamson Murray, et al. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 144-190. ISBN: 9780521637602.
- “Smart Bombs.” Chapter 8 in Report of the Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy . Washington, DC: The Commission: Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1975, pp. 191-198.
- Watts, Barry D. “Unreported History and Unit Effectiveness.” The Journal of Strategic Studies 12, no. 1 (1989): 88-98.
- Burns, Richard D. “Regulating Submarine Warfare, 1921-41: A Case Study in Arms Control and Limited War.” Military Affairs (April 1971): 56-63.
- Cohen, Eliot A., and John Gooch. “Failure to Learn: American Antisubmarine Warfare in 1942.” In Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War . New York, NY: Free Press, 2005, pp. 59-94. ISBN: 9780743280822.
- Beesly, Patrick. “The First Twelve Months: A Lean Time,” “Triton to the Rescue,” and “January-May 1942: Climax of the Battle of the Atlantic.” Chapters 2, 10, and 11 in Very Special Intelligence: the Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre, 1939-1945 . London, UK: Greenhill Books; Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006, pp. ix-xvii, 24-41, 154-171, and 173-185. ISBN: 9781591149248.
- Sapolsky, Harvey M. Science and the Navy . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990, chapter 2, pp. 9-36. ISBN: 9780691078472.
- Sapolsky, Harvey M. The Polaris System Development: Bureaucratic and Programmatic Success in Government . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972, chapters 1, 2, 4, and 8. ISBN: 9780674682252.
- Sapolsky, Harvey M., Eugene Gholz, and Allen Kaufman. “Security Lessons from the Cold War.” Foreign Affairs 78, no. 4 (July/August 1999): 77-89.
- Liebowitz, S. J., and Stephen E. Margolis. “The Fable of the Keys.” Journal of Law and Economics 33, no. 1 (April 1990): 1-25.
- Friedman, Norman. Seapower and Space: From the Dawn of the Missile Age to Net-Centric Warfare . Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000, chapters 8 and 9, pp. 173-229. ISBN: 9781557508973.
- Levine, Henry D. “Some Things to All Men: The Politics of Cruise Missile Development.” Public Policy 25, no. 1 (Winter 1977): 117-168.
- Art, Robert J., and Stephen E. Ockden. “The Domestic Politics of Cruise Missile Development 1970-1980.” In Cruise Missiles: Technology, Strategy and Politics . Edited by Richard Betts. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute, 1981, pp. 359-413. ISBN: 9780815709312.
- Shafer, D. Michael. “The Unlearned Lessons of Counterinsurgency.” Political Science Quarterly 103, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 57-80.
- Marquis, Jefferson P. “The Other Warriors: American Social Science and Nation Building in Vietnam.” Diplomatic History 24, no. 1 (Winter 2000): 79-105.
- SES #: 9 · Topics: Post-Vietnam innovation: The “transformation” of the U.S. Army · READINGS: Posen, Barry R. “Introduction,” “Land Power in Modern Times,” and “The New Model Army.” Unpublished manuscript.
- Anderegg, C. R. “Mud Beaters.” Chapter 12 in Sierra Hotel: Flying Air Force Fighters in the Decade After Vietnam . Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2001, pp. 119-142. ISBN: 9781931839044.
- Cohen, Eliot. “Change and Transformation in Military Affairs.” Journal of Strategic Studies 27, no. 3 (September 2004): 395-407.
- Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr. “Competing for the Future: Searching for Major Ellis.” Marine Corps Gazette 80, no. 11 (November 1996): 28-37.
- Shapiro, Jeremy. “Information and War: Is it a Revolution?” In The Changing Role of Information in Warfare . Edited by Z. M. Khalizad and J. P. White. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1999, pp. 113-154. ISBN: 9780833026637.
- Sapolsky, Harvey, Benjamin Friedman, and Brendan Green, eds. US Military Innovation Since the Cold War: Creation Without Destruction . New York, NY: Routledge, 2009. ISBN: 9780415777919.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.