Chapter 25 Military Strategies for Samhandling in Unforeseen Situations
Subtitle: A Historical Perspective
Contributors: Jacobsen, Jan O.
Publisher: Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP (Nordic Open Access Scholarly Publishing)
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Oslo
Number of pages: 14
ISBN-13: 3625
Subjects: Warfare & defence; Society & social sciences; Civil defence
Description: "The purpose of this chapter is twofold. Firstly, a rather paradoxical situation
will be discussed. Even though most military practitioners seem to agree
on the characteristics of war, two almost diametrically-opposed norms for how to
samhandle have arisen: a centralized one and a decentralized one. We argue that the
decentralized approach, called Auftragstaktik, is the most effective. In the second
part of the chapter we discuss the pedagogical challenge of educating personnel to
thrive in a decentralized organization, which must operate effectively in unforeseen
and threatening environments. Based on the teachings of Moltke the Elder (1800–
1891) and the much more recent writings of Torgersen, Steiro and Saeverot (2015),
we argue that a crucial step in educating for the unforeseen is to give the students
the opportunity to solve new problems by themselves, gaining experience that is, as
far as possible, self-generated and thereby becoming more aware and confident in
dealing with new situations."
Notes: Open Access Unrestricted online access

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