Deviance and Innovation: Change in a “Society of Saints”

Authors

Thaddeus V. Drake, Joint Task Force–Civil Support, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)
Derrick L. McClain, Joint Operations Center, North American Aerospace Defense Command/USNORTHCOM

Abstract

Μilitary innovation and adaptation studies are a growth industry. Since the publication of Barry Posen’s seminal study The Sources of Military Doctrine in the early 1980s, the field has grown extensively. Despite well-known military thinkers’ recent book-length treatments of the topic, most studies of change in the military retain two key commonalities. First, nearly all assume that innovation or adaptation is inherently good and worth pursuing. Second, they agree that militaries are famously resistant to change and accept this as part of the fundamental nature of the military system. This article acknowledges the first point; indeed, modern military leaders continually claim the need for change. The second, on the other hand, is correct but flawed. Innovation and adaptation studies should not accept resistance to change as a fundamental characteristic of the military system but instead must recognize cultural openness as a necessary precondition for any existing concept of innovation or adaptation to succeed to its full potential.

Recommended Citation

Thaddeus V. Drake & Derrick L. McClain, "Deviance and Innovation: Change in a “Society of Saints”," Joint Force Quarterly 114 (3rd Quarter 2024), 24-34, https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/joint-force-quarterly/vol114/iss2/5.