Educating Land Forces’ Leaders to Think from JIIM Perspective

The World has been subjected to successive and rapid changes that modified its order and given rise to a constant state of certainty of uncertainties, as a fluid state of accelerated change and vagueness in the global scenario. For some authors we are living in an environment of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA), as for others in a Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible (BANI) scenario that affects organizations, with serious implications for their leadership and management. In the case of countries' military organizations, this affects the operations’ design, the type of equipment used and fundamentally their training, from which we highlight leadership. So, how is military leadership characterized in a VUCA world and BANI scenario? According to this research question we carried out a systematic literature review with a qualitative approach doing an update of a previous similar study carried out by the authors, looking for new publications that could enrich the comprehension of the topic. Thus, studies were searched in different databases, according to the selected criteria. Guided by the review question we adopt the PRISMA protocol for screening process divided into three phases: identification, screening and inclusion of studies. So, eleven studies were added . Data collected point out that as traditional leadership models are unable to faithfully reflect the modelling of new challenges and realities and military leadership in a VUCA world and BANI scenario is characterized by a complex combination of competencies in a personal, relational and organizational level. Among them the capacity to think out of the box, to be creative, innovative, intuitive, resilient, flexible and adaptative, based on a state of constant awareness and mindfulness to see the global situation and make the best decisions. No other study was found addressing the same research question. So, it seems to be the first study to systematically analyze military leadership in a VUCA environment. This way, it can be a contribution to understanding this topic and to frame future empirical studies.

Despite the general agreement that a firm embodies its own culture, there is still a lack of empirical research on how a firm’s culture affects its value. Another caveat on previous studies is that they implicitly assume that a firm’s culture does not vary over time. In this paper, we examine the following two questions to address this lack: (1) Does a firm’s culture affect the firm’s value? (2) If a firm’s culture varies at different life cycle stages, do these changes have an impact on firm value? By using a competing values framework, we identify four types of corporate culture—adhocracy, market, clan, and hierarchy—and use life cycle stages to proxy for changes in a firm’s environment. The results reveal that adhocracy culture has a positive effect on a firm’s value. In contrast, we find a negative association between hierarchy culture and a firm’s value. This can be interpreted as the features of adhocracy culture, which gives autonomy to its members (flexible and discretion) and keeps challenging a firm to grow (external focus and differentiation), positively impacting firm value more than the other cultures. Furthermore, at a growth stage in which a firm faces dynamic environmental changes, both adhocracy and clan cultures have an incrementally positive effect on firm value. This implies that firms in mature or decline stages lose dynamic changes in their operational environment, therefore, the effect of culture on firm value is restricted in those stages.

As military environments integrate more complex technological systems, operators increasingly require more assistance from automation. When used properly, automation can significantly enhance performance; however, proper use is predicated on the operator's trust in the automation (TIA). TIA, like trust among people, is influenced by biological, psychosocial, and behavioral aspects. While options for measuring TIA have rapidly expanded in the past decade, there has been little consideration for how well these measures perform in operational environments. A 10-yr literature review was conducted to identify TIA measures and rate their appropriateness for operational aeromedical environments. Articles from Google Scholar, EBSCO, and the Defense Technical Information Center databases were included, focusing on user-reported, physiological, and behavioral measures. Study quality was rated by aeromedical research scientists, while aeromedical appropriateness was evaluated by rated military pilots. Measures were categorized as High Recommendation, Cautious Recommendation, or Not Recommended based on these evaluations. Of the measures reviewed, 28 were recommended for operational use, 23 received cautious recommendations, and 6 were not recommended. The recommended measures demonstrated high research quality and suitability for aeromedical environments. The cautious recommendations highlighted measures with specific limitations that need to be considered in operational settings, while the not recommended measures lacked sufficient evidence for reliable use in these contexts. Several high-quality TIA measures appear suitable for operational aeromedical settings. While these recommendations offer a starting point for testing TIA in aeromedical settings, further research is required to test how well these measures perform in an operational environment. Ranes B, Wilkins J, Kenser E, Caid-Loos M. Trust in automation measures for aeromedical settings. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2024; 95(11):851-861.

The U.S. military uses modeling and simulation as a tool to help meet its warfighting needs. A key element within military simulations is the ability to accurately represent human behavior. This is especially true in a simulation's ability to emulate realistic military decisions. However, current decision models fail to provide the variability and flexibility that human decision makers exhibit. Further, most decision models are focused on tactical decisions and ignore the decision process of senior military commanders at the operational level of warfare. In an effort to develop a better decision model that would mimic the decision process of a senior military commander, this research sought to identify an underlying cognitive process and computational techniques that could adequately implement it. Recognition-Primed Decision making (RPD) was identified as one such model that characterized this process. Multiagent system simulation was identified as a computational system that could mimic the cognitive process identified by RPD. The result was a model of RPD called RPDAgent. Using an operational military decision scenario, decisions produced by RPDAgent were compared against decisions made by military officers. It was found that RPDAgent produced decisions that were equivalent to its human counterparts. RPDAgent's decisions were not optimum decisions, but decisions that reflected the variability inherent in those made by humans in an operational military environment.

The world is entering an age where knowledge, technology, and economic wealth often coalesce to form information power bases. In fact, information is becoming a new center of gravity-a strategic asset, inviting attack and requiring protection. In the past, warfare has been described in four operational environments: air, land, sea, and space. Now, information is recognized as the fifth operational environment, and information dominance across the spectrum of conflict is crucial to military success. The conflicts in Southwest Asia, Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti have shown that information technology has significantly altered traditional concepts for military operations. That same technology is improving our situational awareness on a global scale and augmenting our ability to generate military options before crises erupt. Once military force becomes necessary, information technology provides numerous options for prosecuting the conflict. In recognition of the importance of information technology, the military has commenced an effort to define its information architectures. The purpose of having architectures is to document complex, structural artifacts associated with enterprise elements. The Army Enterprise Strategy in compliance with DoD directives define three architectures, technical, operational, and system, for the military. Architectures are developed or updated using various techniques, which is performed following a strategic plan. DoD directives mandate the use of IDEF to assist in defining various aspects of military architectures. When constructed properly, IDEFO, IDEFIX, and IDEF3 models can be complementary to software engineering paradigms such as developing information systems.

This article examines the implications for the regional strategic landscape of uneven regional military modernization in Southeast Asia. At heart, there is a fundamental issue that pertains to all military modernization — no military force can afford to be static in nature and capability. To remain relevant and effective, all military forces have to undergo periodic change, both in terms of their hardware and capabilities on the one hand, but also in terms of their doctrines and strategies, as capabilities change. As strategic conditions in Southeast Asia change — the demise of traditional internal security concerns revolving around revolutionary or armed separatist movements, and the movement towards greater emphasis on external security concerns — this has facilitated the increasing attention that regional armed forces have paid to the process of transformation from counter-insurgency towards conventional military postures and force structures. However, the ever-increasing pace of modern technological change and the increasingly high costs of modern military technologies complicate this modernization process. Not all states in Southeast Asia can actually financially afford to support this military modernization. This has resulted in an uneven process of regional military modernization that can shape the security environment of the region in ways that cannot be anticipated.

Italian armed forces have undergone important transformations since the end of the Cold War. Exogenous changes in the strategic and operational environment have driven a reshaping of armed forces in all NATO countries, but the differences between the national responses that have emerged has not always been thoroughly analysed. Deep restructuring in military doctrine, field experience linked to intense force deployment and budgetary constraints interact in shaping the direction of transformation, sometimes in ways that deviate from classic hypotheses on what drives change in the military. The picture that emerges is a complex one, where relevant innovations co-exist with the persistence of problems that call into question the sustainability of the Italian defence model

This thesis aims to demonstrate and analyze the phenomenon that the Song civil officials, who were considered by modern historians not to be acquainted with military issues, commanding troops from the first Song-Tangut war (1038~1045) to the end of the Zhezong reign(1085~1100). The concept of “ commanding troops” in this thesis refers to widespread contents, including managing armies, dealing with military enterprise in the frontier region, and mobilizing armies to fight against enemies. In this thesis, I focus on the civil officials as frontier military intendant (“civil military intendants”) in Shaan-xi circuit for researching examples. Chapter One represents as an introduction, covering the estimation of precedent research works and methodological concerns of this thesis. Chapter Two presents the discourses advocators utilize to promote “civil officials commanding troops”. Chapter Three takes Shaan-xi circuit as examples, discussing the exercising rules of military forces in Song military defense system, which enable a “civil military intendant” in defense area to take authority and responsibilities to keep regional stability. Chapter Four analyzes the relations between “civil military intendants” and soldiers, the guiding principles “civil military intendants” take, their acts different from military intendants, and their military activities in war. Chapter Five illustrates the working experience “civil military intendants” undergo in bureaucratic system and their interpretations of civil officials engaging in military affairs. The final chapter serves as a conclusion, examining the hidden meaning beyond materials above. The appendix analyzes the phrase “confucian general” in Song sources. The main point of this thesis is that the principle of “civil officials dominating military officials” in Song frontier defense system realizes some scholar-officials’ ideal of “civil officials commanding troops”. Because of the fact of “civil officials commanding troops” in Song frontier defense system, the phrase “confucian general” was more prevailing in Song China than before. Through studying the issue of civil officials commanding troops, I hope this thesis to improve our understanding on political history, military history, and literati culture in Sung China.

ARMED FORCES TODAY

While automated systems have been shown to improve safety and efficiency in operational environments, automation failures can lead to abrupt shifts in workload. Subjective workload scales have been shown to be sensitive to differences in workload, but they are limited in their ability to assess dynamic, moment-to-moment workload variations. Physiological measures may be better suited to assess dynamic workload in complex environments. This study explored the feasibility of a relatively new physiological measure, Transcranial Doppler Sonography (TCD), as a candidate for adaptive automation studies. Participants performed long duration, supervisory control tasks under varying levels of taskload. In one group, enemy threats increased once late in the simulation, and in another group enemy threats increased at two points; once early and once late within the simulation. All participants completed a comparison condition in which there was no variation in the number of incoming enemy threats. Cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), as measured by TCD, was measured during task performance. Performance was assessed by the ability of the operator to protect a no-fly zone from enemy incursion. Subjective mental workload was assessed using the NASA-TLX. As performance decreased during periods of high load, CBFV increased, and there was a close parallel between the CBFV and performance measures. The NASA-TLX was sensitive in detecting differences in workload between the two conditions, but the patterns of results of this subjective measure were insensitive to specific task elements. The results are interpreted in terms of a resource theory of task performance and show that the CBFV measure is sensitive to dynamic changes in taskload in complex environments.

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of special physical training in shaping the professional readiness of police officers to perform tactical and fire tasks in the course of law enforcement activities. It is substantiated that special physical training is not an auxiliary, but a system-forming component of professional training, which ensures the effective implementation of tactical decisions and the lawful and safe use of firearms under conditions of increased physical load, time deficit, and psycho-emotional stress. The study emphasizes that real service situations faced by police officers are characterized by dynamic changes in the operational environment, high levels of physical exertion, and the need to make prompt and responsible decisions. Under such conditions, the effectiveness of tactical actions and fire engagement largely depends on the level of development of special physical qualities, including strength endurance, coordination, speed of reaction, and resistance to fatigue. The interrelationship between special physical, tactical, and fire training is revealed, demonstrating that insufficient physical preparedness significantly reduces the practical value of tactical knowledge and shooting skills acquired in standard training conditions. Particular attention is paid to the influence of physical fatigue on psychophysiological processes, such as attention, accuracy of movements, emotional stability, and decision-making quality. It is determined that systematic special physical training contributes to the formation of stress resistance, enhances control over motor actions during firearm use, and increases the reliability of professional behavior in extreme situations. The article also highlights the importance of developing unit-level interaction skills, as coordinated actions within tactical groups require a high level of physical readiness and functional stability. The feasibility of implementing an integrated approach to police training in higher education institutions with specific training conditions is substantiated. This approach involves combining special physical, tactical, and fire training within unified training scenarios that simulate real combat situations. It is concluded that the integration of these components creates prerequisites for forming a professionally reliable police officer capable of acting effectively, lawfully, and safely in modern law enforcement challenges.

In autonomous driving systems, the level of monitoring and control expected from the vehicle and the driver change in accordance with the level of automation, creating a dynamic risk environment where risks change according to the level of automation. Moreover, the input data and their essential features for a given risk model can also be inconsistent, heterogeneous, and volatile. Therefore, risk assessment systems must adapt to changes in the automation level and input data content to ensure that both the risk criteria and weighting reflect the actual system state, which can change at any time. This paper introduces KnowGo, a learning-based dynamic risk assessment framework that provides a risk prediction architecture that can be dynamically reconfigured in terms of risk criterion, risk model selection, and weighting in response to dynamic changes in the operational environment. We validated the KnowGo framework with five types of risk scoring models implemented using data-driven and rule-based methods.

In the article, a taxonomic method for selecting the optimal vectorization approach for processing current images in the optical-electronic module of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was developed. The primary goal of this method is to optimize UAV navigation systems, which is particularly relevant due to the need to improve data processing efficiency in conditions of limited access to satellite navigation systems. This is critically important for ensuring high autonomy and accuracy of UAVs during the performance of various tasks. The need for such a method arose from the specific challenges faced by UAVs when operating in complex and unpredictable conditions. Analysis has shown that the use of vector images can significantly reduce the time required for information processing. This is possible due to the smaller volume of data that needs to be processed compared to traditional raster images. Reducing information processing time is critically important for the operational capability of UAVs to respond to dynamic changes in the operational environment, especially in critical situations. The taxonomic approach applied in the study allows for systematic classification and evaluation of different vectorization methods in terms of their processing speed, accuracy of results, and data retention efficiency. This enables the identification of the most suitable method for the specific operational conditions in which the UAV is used, thereby optimizing the overall system performance. Furthermore, the results of this research are significant not only in the scientific field but also in practical applications. By improving autonomous navigation systems for UAVs, the study directly contributes to enhancing their effectiveness in complex and unpredictable conditions. This is particularly relevant for missions that require a high level of precision and reliability, such as those performed by military UAVs and emergency response. Enhanced navigation capabilities allow these UAVs to perform complex maneuvers and make real-time decisions based on processed vectorized images, thereby reducing the risk of errors and increasing mission success rates. An improved vectorization method could lead to significant enhancements in UAV navigation systems, making them more resistant to failures and capable of operating in less structured environments without heavy reliance on satellite signals. This enhancement is vitally important for both military and civilian UAV applications, where operational flexibility and reliability are extremely important.

Canada’s security interests and the mission of our Armed Forces – that is to defend Canada, defend North America and to promote peace and security abroad – may largely remain unchanged and timeless. The nature of the security environment, however, has not – nor will it be in the years to come. An effective and relevant Canadian Armed Forces will continue to require capable, wellequipped and operationally-ready maritime, air and land forces who are largely raised and trained within our Army, Navy and Air Force. But in order for Defence to remain relevant and effective in an era of increased instability, volatility and unpredictability, our Armed Forces need the ability and capacity to match these with an increased understanding of what is going on, and preparedness for what is to come. This is the business of our military’s Joint Forces – those beyond the tactical units that the services provide. It is the joint organizations and networks within the institution that generate intelligence, provide understanding and lead the partnering, planning, force posturing and practicing so essential to the anticipation of, preparation for, and conduct of, operations – in particular in a world of unrelenting complexity. A decade after General Rick Hillier’s extraordinary initiatives to transform our Armed Forces from a service-centric machine-age force to one focused on the business of operations, one that thinks and acts Canadian Forces (joint) first, we do see evidence of real progress in the approach to joint operations and improved appreciation of our military’s joint functions and capabilities. Unlike the political and public calls for strong services and the modernization of their major platforms, however, this progress has been realized largely through efforts internal to the Armed Forces themselves. The initiative has been without political leadership and external policy topcover, rendering this progress and its future vulnerable and reversible. This paper describes the functions of the Joint Force; advocates for the capabilities they require to enable partnerships, enhance understanding and advance mission preparedness; and calls for unified leadership of the joint domain and over our military’s joint culture. Our traditional international partners have travelled this road. They too see that clarity on joint functions, joint capability, joint domain leadership, and stewardship over joint culture are vital to their military’s relevance and operational effectiveness – and to their agility and flexibility in the years to come. Their progress is the result of internal professional transformation, as well as the understanding of, and requirement by political leaders and modern defence policy to make this so. Here in Canada, the forming of new government this fall calls for a relook at Defence policy, providing new opportunity to invite that same political leadership and influence. Joint functions, joint capabilities and clear joint leadership are vital to our military’s relevance to, and effectiveness in, our national defence and operations. Joint Forces and the joint domain, like strong and capable Army, Navy and Air Forces, need to be led, resourced and fully engaged before planes fly, ships sail, and troops deploy. Joint-ness requires external understanding and proponents, and, within the Forces, a clearly identifiable champion. In Canada, these range from ambiguous to absent.

The realities of the contemporary operational environment, which, given the nature of the actors, conditions and circumstances, manifest themselves in a well-defined space, directly and fundamentally influence decisions and the use of military capabilities. Identifying the key features of the operational environment, understanding and anticipating the evolutionary trends of these features are essential conditions for military planners to design successful military operations that respect the principle of sufficient use of military force. The continuous changes in the operational environment require a reaction both in terms of concept, but, especially, in terms of action, to adapt the military capabilities and, implicitly, the operational concepts to the new challenges. In this context, shortening the duration of the adaptation of strategies, doctrines, tactics, techniques and procedures used in military actions to the maximum becomes imperative and must be at the same time anticipatory, and employing scientific tools to achieve an appropriate correlation between the structure of forces and missions is an unequivocal necessity