All that Glitters is Not Gold: Overcoming the US Military’s Pro-Innovation Bias
Laura H. Schousboe | April 1, 2020
What goes up must come down. This is not only a principle of physics, but by now also a core principle of military establishments: buzzwords and new concepts emerge regularly, but they tend to fall from grace as quickly as they rise. Such was, for instance, the fate of “reversibility,†the “Revolution in Military Affairs,†and “Network Centric Warfare.†However, one buzzword seems to have survived for a while now: innovation. As I have written elsewhere, the enthusiasm for innovation is omnipresent with both political and military leaders, and there is a tendency to disguise every initiative with “innovation branding.†The title of a recent hearing in the United States Congress, “Supercharging the Innovation Base,†aptly captures the nearly zealous understanding that innovation is good, and more innovation is always better.
Based on my research on military innovation, it is clear that a “pro-innovation bias†exists within military organizations today, perhaps most visibly in the United States. But this pro-innovation bias actually prevents us from critically assessing what innovation actually entails—that is, assuming and handling risk. This is especially true of technological innovation, illustrated most recently by the cancellation of the current solicitation for the US Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle.
https://mwi.usma.edu/glitters-not-gold-overcoming-us-militarys-pro-innovation-bias/
