Lessons of Allied Interoperability: A Portent for the Future

Interoperability

“…Interoperability in socio-technical systems describes the ability of discrete and technically or organisationally heterogeneous systems to share services or resources with other systems. Systems that are fully interoperable are experienced by the relevant group of stakeholders as a single 'integrated' system (Cooling & Hixson, 1978) or as a sense of 'seamlessness' between systems (Lawson & Herrada, 2022), although this experience can disguise considerable effort on behalf of those who design and maintain these systems. Interoperability can be achieved through particularised work to connect two systems together through the development and adoption of standards that allow an arbitrary number of systems to interface with each other, or through integrative approaches that build generalisable interoperability at the design and implementation of systems themselves.…”

“…The interoperability between military systems was a central focus of allied warfare during the Second World War. For the Allies, the experience of a long-term engagement between multiple allied armies in single theatres of war allowed interoperability to develop as a process of trial and error, with the ultimate goal of integrated operations (Cooling & Hixson, 1978). Contemporary military interoperability describes the capability of military units from different nations to share services and thereby benefit from efficient joint operations, which spans everything from strategic interoperability (such as objective setting processes) to technical interoperability (such as the sharing of equipment standards and communications systems) (Moon et al, 2008;Pernin et al, 2020).…”

“…A dominant market participant can impose interoperability across an industry or sector. This was evident from the earliest instances: American dominance over arms production in the Second World War meant that it set implicit standards across technical, semantic, syntactic, and organisational interoperability (Cooling & Hixson, 1978). Market dominance often determines approaches to interoperability as competitors seek to take advantage of the lead firm's network effects (Kieller, 2011).…”