Analysis & Opinions - Proceedings - U.S. Naval Institute

Break Out or Fail

| Apr. 01, 2017

I believe we are experiencing a disruption in our national security landscape. If so, the U.S. military, including the Navy, must act with urgency to break out of its current conceptual-technical equilibrium, or we risk failure in a future conflict.

A “revolution,” in military terms, may be defined as something we control, such as the advancements in precision-guided weapons and other technologies that shaped what many call the Second Offset. “Disruption,” on the other hand, is something over which we lose control, when a progression of events upends long-held belief systems and fundamentally reshapes or, in some cases, takes down entire institutions.

After such a disruption, organizations look back and realize the evidence pointing to the change was there all the time. Examples abound, such as our recent financial crisis or the destruction of Polaroid by the advent of the digital camera. And it happened at Pearl Harbor 75 years ago.

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For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
For Academic Citation: Winnefeld, James.“Break Out or Fail.” Proceedings - U.S. Naval Institute, April 1, 2017.

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