Innovation shapes wars, and twelve studies by former faculty members of West Point’s United States Military Academy examine specific cases of past and present military innovation. The complex, competitive, and dynamic environment that defines war drives combatants to seek solutions to potentially lethal problems. As some solutions prove effective, gain traction, and win emulation, they follow a path of innovation. The chapters address a broad array of innovations, including in weapon technology, strategy, research and development philosophy, organization of the military instrument, and leveraging maps for strategic goals. Geographically, the examples in this volume span four continents and the Mediterranean Sea, and chronologically they proceed from the twelfth century to the twenty first. Collectively, the studies point to the interconnected value of pursuing constructive solutions to challenges, networking interdisciplinary forms of knowledge, appropriately balancing expectations and capabilities, and understanding an innovation as a journey rather than as an episodic event.

In Wiki at War, James Jay Carafano explains why these and other Internet-born initiatives matter and how they are likely to affect the future face of war, diplomacy, and domestic politics.

"THE FUTURE WARS: CONFLICT IN THE AGE OF INNOVATION" IS CONCEIVED WIT MULTIFACETED INTENTION, SERVING NOT ONLY AS A PROPHETIC CANVAS ON WHICH WE PAINT PLAUSIBLE SCENARIOS OFTOMORROW'S CONFLICTS BUT ALSO AS A CLARION CALL FOR PRE-EMPTIVE REFLECTION AND ACTION. AT THE HEART OF THIS ENDEAVOUR IS THE DESIRE TO EXPLORE AND UNDERSTAND THE SHAPE THAT WAR MIGHT TAKE IN THE FUTURE, GIVEN THE RAPID ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY AND THE SHIFTING SANDS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS. WITH AN EYE ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS, CYBER WARFARE CAPABILITIES, AND SPACE-BASED COMBAT PLATFORMS, THIS BOOK SEEKS TO PAINT A COMPREHENSIVE PICTURE OF WHAT THE ART OF WAR COULD LOOK LIKE IN THE DECADES TO COME. THE PURSUIT OF THIS KNOWLEDGE IS NOT TO STOKE THE FIRES OF CONFLICT BUT TO SMOTHER THE EMBERS BEFORE THEY FLAME. THROUGH A THOROUGH EXAMINATION OF POTENTIAL DANGERS AND ETHICAL QUANDARIES, "THE FUTURE WARS: CONFLICT IN THE AGE OF INNOVATION" AIMS TO INFORM AND PREPARE POLICY MAKERS, MILITARY LEADERS, SCHOLARS, AND CITIZENS ALIKE TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS THAT COULD AVERT DEVASTATING CONFLICTS. BY CONSIDERING THE IMPACT OF FUTURE WARS ON HUMAN SOCIETY, ECONOMIES, AND THE GLOBAL ORDER, THE BOOK INTENDS TO ELICIT A BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR AND THE IMPORTANCE OF DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS IN MAINTAINING PEACE.

In 1914, the armies and navies that faced each other were alike right down to the strengths of their companies and battalions and the designs of their battleships and cruisers. Differences were of degree rather than essence. During the interwar period, however, the armed forces grew increasingly asymmetrical, developing different approaches to the same problems. This study of major military innovations in the 1920s and 1930s explores differences in exploitation by the seven major military powers. The comparative essays investigate how and why innovation occurred or did not occur, and explain much of the strategic and operative performance of the Axis and Allies in World War II. The essays focus on several instances of how military services developed new technology and weapons and incorporated them into their doctrine, organisation and styles of operations.

Innovation Wars confronts the emotions of innovation and explains how innovation isn’t really about new ideas, but about the people who execute them. The modern economy brings a multitude of challenges for organizations. Digital culture has taken over as a prime driver of consumer behavior, startups are continuously disrupting traditional industries, and organizations are going out of business as a rising number have announced intentions to launch innovation labs or partner with nimbler organizations. The economy has evolved into a battlefield, full of attempts, failures, and successes. Innovation Wars provides new business designs, new tools, and new frameworks for today’s leaders to steer their organization towards success. Technology guru Scott Bales looks at the models of successful organizations, mapping out a strategic roadmap to success with a fresh take on the nature of innovation. He guides business leaders through a journey of self-reflection on their way to experimentation and value proposition discovery. Readers are given practical tools they can apply in their current organization to reduce the guess work in strategy and market success. They learn to do things the likes of Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon have done time and time again: harness the power of their voice to find new ways to solve old problems and unlock market frustration.

‘This is comparative history on a grand scale, skilfully analysing complex national debates and drawing major conclusions without ever losing the necessary nuances of interpretation.’ Stefan Berger, University of Manchester, UK Remembering the Road to World War Two is a broad and comparative international survey of the historiography of the origins of the Second World War. It explores how, in the case of each of the major combatant countries, historical writing on the origins of the Second World War has been inextricably entwined with debates over national identity and collective memory. Spanning seven case studies – the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, the United States and Japan – Patrick Finney proposes a fresh approach to the politics of historiography. This provocative volume discusses the political, cultural, disciplinary and archival factors which have contributed to the evolving construction of historical interpretations. It analyses the complex and multi-faceted relationships between texts about the origins of the war, the negotiation of conceptions of national identity and unfolding processes of war remembrance. Offering an innovative perspective on international history and enriching the literature on collective memory, this book will prove fascinating reading for all students of the Second World War.

Occasionally, during times of peace, military forces achieve major warfighting innovations. Terry Pierce terms these developments 'disruptive innovations' and shows how senior leaders have often disguised them in order to ensure their innovations survived.

From an esteemed military historian, a sweeping history of the revolutions in war-fighting that have shaped the modern world Heraclitus wrote that “war is the father of all,” and it has formed much of the modern world. Although the fundamental nature of war has not altered over the centuries, constant change, innovation, and adaptation have repeatedly reshaped how wars are fought in the West. Revolutions in military practice cannot be separated from larger social developments in areas like logistics, finance and economics, and the culture of military organizations. In The Dark Path, Williamson Murray argues that the history of warfare in the West hinged on five revolutions, which both reflected the social, political, and economic conditions that produced them and in turn influenced how those conditions evolved. These five key turning points are the advent of the modern state, which formed bureaucracies and professional militaries; the Industrial Revolution, which produced the financial and industrial means to sustain and equip large armies; the French Revolution, which provided the ideological basis needed to sustain armies through continent-sized wars; the merging of the Industrial and French Revolutions in the U.S. Civil War; and the accelerating integration of technological advancement, financial capacity, ideology, and government that unleashed the modern capacity for total warfare. An ambitious work of synthesis, this book shows how the world continually re-creates war—and how war, in turn, continually re-creates the world.

Technology of one kind or another has always been a central ingredient in war. The Spartan king Archidamus, for instance, reacted with alarm when first witnessing a weapon that could shoot darts through the air. And yet during the past two centuries technology has played an unprecedented role in military affairs and thinking, and in the overall conduct of war. In addition, the impact of new technology on warfare has brought major social and cultural changes. This volume explores the relationship between war, technology, and modern society over the course of the last several centuries. The two world wars, total conflicts in which industrial technology took a terrible human toll, brought great changes to the practice of organized violence among nations; even so many aspect of military life and values remained largely unaffected. In the latter half of the twentieth century, technology in the form of nuclear deterrence appears to have prevented the global conflagration of world war while complicating and fueling ferocious regional contests. A stimulating fusion of military and social history, extending back to the eighteenth century, and with contributions from such leading historians as Brian Bond, Paddy Griffith, and Neil McMillen, War in the Age of Technology will interest lay readers and specialists alike.

What can organizations do to create changes that are both profound and enduring? This anthology explores why traditional change strategies have failed and examines constructive alternatives. International experts prove successful change can be a realistic goal. Real examples of pilot projects, model schools, and other groundbreaking endeavors illustrate precisely how theory translates into practice.