FULL-SPECTRUM INTEGRATED LETHALITY? ON THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF BUZZWORDS
ELENA WICKERMAY 17, 2023
Every few years, there seems to be a new buzzword in the national security establishment. What was once simply “deterrence” has recently become “integrated deterrence.” This follows a decades-long adjectival march through nuclear, conventional, direct, immediate, general, complex, indirect, extended, asymmetric, classical, traditional, modern, pivotal, and perfect deterrence, not to mention deterrence by denial, punishment, entanglement, and detection. Today, at least 27 types of deterrence exist in political science and defense studies.
Across the defense enterprise, the proliferation of attention-grabbing jargon is widely maligned. These new terms can be confusing, duplicative, vague, and generally unhelpful. Buzzwords and jargon are banned in writing guides, legislated into plain language, and constrained through terminology standardization programs. Yet, despite this, buzzwords continue to proliferate. Why?
Buzzwords are a promising weapon in the arsenal of individuals seeking to shape an organization. Buzzwords introduce a new label that can delink us from our prior knowledge and expectations. They can provide an external or executive-driven justification for new budgeting and organizational structures, thereby deflecting blame from lower-level leaders. When used judiciously and in concert with other tactics, buzzwords can help leaders change organizations. But buzzwords are also perilous. They can be coopted into bumper stickers or denigrated as bingo squares. All buzzwords eventually lose their buzz. It is the actions, or inaction, of individuals and organizations during a buzzword’s lifespan that determine whether it begins a revolution or fades into a bumper sticker.
https://warontherocks.com/2023/05/full-spectrum-integrated-lethality-on-the-promise-and-peril-of-buzzwords/
