War, transparency and control: the military architecture of operational warfare

Öberg, Dan

doi:10.1080/09557571.2016.1230733

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…What is of interest in this article is not what the justification or role of naval forces truly are, but instead how the conceptualisation of the value of naval forces came about. Doctrines are used since they provide a central text through which the conceptualisation and discourse of several aspects of the military can be captured (Öberg 2016, 1133Ansorge 2010, 362). Even though doctrines are written for external consumption, they are also intended for internal use within the service branch and as such also entail an "internalist account" (Ghamari-Tabrizi 2000, 169).…”

Section: "Ideas Matter Sometimes Fundamentally"mentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the value of naval forces?–ideas as a strategic and tactical restriction

Björnehed

2021

Defence Studies

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Section: "Ideas Matter Sometimes Fundamentally"mentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the value of naval forces?–ideas as a strategic and tactical restriction

Björnehed

2021

Defence Studies

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“…Some of the respondents touched on how operational exercises attempt to anticipate the future that unfolds via military methodology (Interviews 3, 6). As I have noted elsewhere, warfare on the operational level often strives to preemptively intercept events and acts that interfere with military planning (Öberg, 2016: 1134). Moreover, it has been noted that the US military aims to anticipate future warfare through its long-term planning procedures (Angstrom, 2018).…”

Section: Modelling the Operational Dimensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Operational exercises focus on planning military conduct and on translating plans into orders to execute (Hittle, 1961: 2–4). Accordingly, the operational dimension introduces ideas of administrative and organizational routines, management procedures, and managerial skills into war (Gibson, 1986; McAllister Linn, 2007; Malm, 2019; Nordin and Öberg, 2015; Öberg, 2016; Owens, 2016). While the insight that warfare includes an operational dimension is not new, acknowledging the latter’s constitutive role through exercises opens up possibilities for a more precise understanding of how warfare becomes praxis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercising war: How tactical and operational modelling shape and reify military practice

Öberg

2019

Security Dialogue

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This article analyzes how contemporary military training and exercises shape and reify specific modalities of war. Historically, military training has shifted from being individual- and experience-oriented, towards becoming modelled into exercise environments and practices. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with military officers, exercise controllers, and war-game designers, the article distinguishes between tactical training, characterized by military functions embodied through weapon platforms in a demarcated battlespace, and operational training, characterized by administrative and organizational processes embodied through self-referential staff routines. As military exercises integrate the tactical and operational dimensions into a model for warfare, they serve as blueprints for today’s battles at the same time as they perpetuate a martial viewpoint of the world. As a result, preparations for potential future conflicts constitute a fertile ground for apprehending the becoming of war.

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“…Military design discourses chime well with the spatial and temporal practices of such warfare, based on the political vision that in war ‘there is no more outside, only an inside in the making’ (Behnke, 2004: 312). Consider the use of knowledge of local cultural customs as part of military intelligence, conscious attempts to co-opt women through social programs, or the violent targeting of patterns of the everyday (see Evans, 2011; Khalili, 2011; Öberg, 2016).…”

Section: Military Design and Global Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Warfare as design: Transgressive creativity and reductive operational planning

Öberg

2018

Security Dialogue

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This article argues that the politics of contemporary Western warfare finds an important reference point in discourses on military design. In the 2010s, military design has become a trending topic in military discourses on command and planning methodology. Since Clausewitz, warfare has been considered a phenomenon characterized by a tension between creativity and linear planning, and the ideal commander as someone with the vision to overcome this. By mapping and analyzing tactical, operational, and strategic narratives and practices, the article illustrates how they emphasize a warfare based both on experimentation and artistry and on traditional operational planning. In so doing, military design relies on reductive military concepts to push the tension identified by Clausewitz towards its extreme end-point, idealizing creativity as an objective of warfare. The article ends by asking to what extent military design risks spilling over into other dimensions of social and political life. It concludes that in pushing creativity as part of war, military design builds on and justifies transgressive political practices with the risk of becoming a vital aspect of future governing.

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War, transparency and control: the military architecture of operational warfare

Cited by 6 publications

References 33 publications

What is the value of naval forces?–ideas as a strategic and tactical restriction

What is the value of naval forces?–ideas as a strategic and tactical restriction

Exercising war: How tactical and operational modelling shape and reify military practice

Warfare as design: Transgressive creativity and reductive operational planning

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