Military Leadership

• Military leadership challenges for the 21st century is the Topic

This activity will address module outcome 3. Upon completing this activity you will be able to:
• Create a final paper to address a global military issue or problem (CO5).
Throughout the course, you have been working toward the final paper. You chose your topic in Module 1 from the list below (unless you had prior approval to choose something else):
• Strategic Communications in the 21st Century
• Military ethics and the Military Decision Making Process
• Military leadership challenges for the 21st century
• Strategic Military challenges in a global environment
• Military transformation in the midst of conflict
Your assignment was to choose a topic and then identify a focused area of the larger problem or present your own idea of a problem that you want to explore. The issue you chose should address what the military faces globally that will have a significant impact on the world at large. As with any project, findings must be based on research and not opinions. You have chosen a thesis, researched a few sources, and created a draft outline. You are now ready to create your final paper.
The final paper will pull together all the previous module topics which focused on the learning outcomes for this course.
Here are the guidelines:
• Employ the topic you proposed in Module 1 to create a 11-page final paper not including title and reference pages.
• Use the scholarly journals from your annotated bibliography. This should be the launching point from which you write this final paper.
• Follow the outline you created for your paper.
• APA Formatting Guidelines (follow these for font, indents, margins, bibliographic references and, most importantly, the citations within the text of the body of your paper!)
• Use 12 point font.
Research and Writing Assistance:
• Start by viewing this video: Military Leadership Research Guide video (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video File, 5:42 mins]
• Ensure your paper is free of grammatical errors. Use APA style (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for all writing assignments.
• Writing a research paper (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• By citing sources (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., you will avoid plagiarism (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and give credit to the originator of an idea.
You can also consult the EC Online Writing Lab (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for additional resources on how to organize and write a paper of this length. Additionally, I recommend Smarthinking, a free tutorial service available to you from your student toolbar. In addition, the library has a Military Leadership research guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. that is helpful.

Outline and Thesis Statement for Final Paper
The environment in today’s world is widespread with a numerous of issues that offer up several challenges for military leadership. Military leaders of the 21st Century are now confronted by unconventional warfare that is characterized by ideological divisions, political proxies, and the balance between hard and soft power, economic development and technological advancement. Further, personnel management has become a critical leadership issue due to the increase in diversity within the military.
Outline
Unconventional war explains the irregular patterns of battle that are preferred over the normal capabilities that characterize the state of war. Previously, militaries that went to war followed their basic structures and strategies that were reliant on the knowledge that was developed from combat operations. This cannot be said of today’s battlefield where wars are no longer fought between militaries but untraditional groups whose motivations are not apparent from the onset. Amongst all these is the diversity factor. Militaries are infamous for their long-standing cultures and traditions.

Ideological Divisions
This subtopic deliberates the fundamental changes in the factors that lead to wars. As Matthews (2014) found out, today’s militaries go to war with ideologies rather than other nations. It is the task of military leaders to develop new tactics to fight an enemy they are virtually unfamiliar with, who does not follow any rules of engagement and has almost nothing to lose.
Political Proxies
Today, the main players in military conflicts are proxy actors. Opposing governments offer militarily support to natural factions in countries where their interests collide in order to maintain plausible deniability (Marshall, 2016). Such unconventional means of waging war often leads to high civilian casualties. While it eliminates the need for public accountability for civilian leaders, military leaders are required to ensure conventions of war are obeyed.
Economic Development
Today, many countries are highly urbanized populations. The challenge for military leaders is how to navigate such environments and the strategic concessions that they would have to give in order to optimize their operations in such developed places (Lasky, 2017).
Technological Advancement
This subtopic addresses the shift from dependence on infantries to machines as the primary means of waging war. While there are many advantages attributed to the use of machines, such as reduction in battle casualties, several other factors come into play.
Integration of technology. Today, technology has given the military a scientific advantage that was not previously available. Defense modernization has provided the military the capabilities of conducting their activities remotely. However, while the benefits are creditable and undeniable, military leaders struggle with the issue of efficiency and effectiveness. As Greenemeier (2011) found out, use of technology opens up the military to several unconventional vulnerabilities. How best should technology be used to ensure military activities and operation are efficient? What level of human involvement should still be maintained to ensure critical operations remain effective?
Redefining the human role. Military personnel numbers are often in the hundreds of thousands and into the millions. However, technology has taken up several traditional human roles and continues to do so as it advances. Military leaders have to find the optimal balance between personnel numbers and the level of reliance on technology. In traditional warfare, military troops often fought on the ground, but with the use of remote abilities, military leaders now have to repurpose these people and utilize them in unconventional ways. In order to fit in with the increased use of technology, military leaders have to redesign training programs to impart personnel with new knowledge and skills in order to fill new roles.
Managing costs . Technology is expensive. Military leaders are often in charge of defense budgets and have to balance between the capital-intensive research & development and other competing needs. This challenge is especially more acute for smaller nations that are likely to face a strain on their resources in the future (]eppsson, 2006).
Ethical issues. Military leaders are well aware of the sensitive relationship between law and ethics. This forces them to answer any questions regarding the proper deployment of dangerous technology in war. This subtopic examines the fine line between armed conflict resolution and armed violence. Does the use of remote military technology reinforce compliance with international rules of war or denigrates human rights? While existing ethical frameworks answer such pressing questions on the use of technology, the emergence of cyber warfare may yet raise more question (Coleman, 2013).
Hard and Soft Power
The military plays several roles in today’s environment. Military activities have many far-reaching consequences for the political and economic outlook of a country. They often shape the relations between nations, a factor that gives military leaders great responsibility. Woods (2011) suggests that contemporary military leaders should acquire higher relational skills and not only war strategy. This is important to enable them become more flexible and adaptable ensuring leadership changes according to the shifts in roles.
Inclusivity
Proper personnel management is essential for the performance of any military. The challenge that military leaders encounter is determining the role of both men and women in the modern environment (Dansby, Stewart & Webb, 2012). This subtopic evaluates the need for militaries to pursue gender integration for the benefit of leadership.
References
Coleman, S. (2013). Ethical challenges of new military technologies. New Technologies and The Law of Armed Conflict, 29-41. doi: 10.1007/978-90-6704-933-7_3
Dansby, M. R., Stewart, J. B., & Webb, S. C. (Eds.). (2012). Managing diversity in the military: Research perspectives from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. Transaction Publishers
Greenemeier, L. (2011). Post-9/11 technology brings exoskeletons, laser cannons to 21st century U.S. military [Slide Show]. Retrieved from
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/post-911-military-technology/
]eppsson, T. (2006). Challenges facing future military strategic leadership – views reflecting a
small state perspective. Tiede Ja Ase, 64(64), 84-92. Retrieved from
https://journal.fi/ta/article/view/47918
Lasky, J. (2017). Five key trends, and challenges, facing the U.S. military. Retrieved from
https://medium.com/@laskyjoshua/an-early-look-at-the-future-of-warfared53ed31b7ac0
Marshall, A. (2016). From civil war to proxy war: past history and current dilemmas. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 27(2), 183-195. doi: 10.1080/09592318.2015.1129172
Matthews, M. (2014). 21st Century military leadership. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/head-strong/201410/21st-century-militaryleadership
Woods, K. (2011). Ceasefire capitalism: military–private partnerships, resource concessions and military–state building in the Burma–China borderlands. Journal of Peasant
Studies, 38(4), 747-770. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2011.607699

M3A1: Annotated Bibliography 2
Bachmann, S. D., & Gunneriusson, H. (2015). Hybrid wars: the 21st-century’s new threats to global peace and security. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, 43(1), 77-98. doi: 10.5787/43-1-1110
As far as assessing the modern warfare landscape is concerned, this article does a fantastic job. The emerging trend of globalization and technological integration in almost every facet of life, including warfare, has been revolutionary at the very least. The authors of this article follow the development of hybrid war in the 21st Century which combines conventional warfare with cyber-war and cyber-terrorism. Examining these issues on the background of the Ukrainian Spring in Russia as well as the activities of extremist radical Islamic groups in the Middle East and Africa, this article provides a significant understanding of the hybrid nature of warfare in the 21st Century. From this assessment, the authors manage to establish that warfare is changing in this century, based on the assessment of a continuing hybrid threat project at the Swedish Defense College, and radically predict the need to transform military doctrines and approaches to war and peace going forward. This article elaborately explores the modern form of warfare and what it means for militaries and governments around the world.
Dansby, M. R., Stewart, J. B., & Webb, S. C. (Eds.). (2012). Managing diversity in the military: Research perspectives from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. Transaction Publishers.
In this book, the authors take a close look at the issue of diversity in the military today, and how it continues to affect military performance on various fronts. They adopt an objective position, which allows them to critically examine the role that men and women play in the military, and how said roles differ in the modern context. For purposes of effectiveness, the authors examine all the different arms of the defense forces, which provides for some critical assessments on the issue of gender inclusivity in the modern military. The authors critically establish that in the performance of military personnel, gender does not pose as an obstacle as opposed to the falsely believed contrarian position. Instead, they determine that leadership is the crucial factor that must be considered in military performance, and especially so in this century of ever-changing warfare. In essence, the book demonstrates the need for militaries to actively pursue gender integration and inclusivity.
Greenemeier, L. (2011). Post-9/11 technology brings exoskeletons, laser cannons to 21st-Century U.S. Military [Slide Show]. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/post-911-military-technology/
In this insightful article published in the Scientific American, Greenemeier manages to briefly explore the impact of 9/11 on the development of military technology and the readiness of the American military to combat threats. In this exploration, the author assesses the rate of technological development in military weapons in the US post 9/11 and what these technological developments mean for the military. The author not only examines the development of modernized weapons technology such as smart grenade launchers and exoskeletons for soldiers, but also assesses the US military’s obsession-like drive to keep developing advanced weapons technology in a bid to maintain an advantage over enemies in the largely unconventional warfare landscape today. The article also addresses the rapid and startling development of unconventional weapons in the fields of cyberwarfare, electronic warfare, and even in missile guidance systems. This article personifies the warfare landscape in the 21st century and raises socially and ethically complex questions surrounding in the integration of technology into warfare and the human capacity to responsibility handle said weapons.
King, A. (2013). The combat soldier: Infantry tactics and cohesion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Insofar as conventional warfare in the 21st Century is concerned, King manages to expertly assess the development of combat and infantry tactics in warfare in both the 20th and 21st Centuries. In doing so, this book manages to effectively map out the transitional development and progression of warfare across the world and the role that infantry soldiers have played in wars over the years. By examining the Australian, American, British, Canadian, French, German, and Italian militaries over both centuries, the author demonstrates the morphing role of infantry soldiers in warfare over the period. However, while the roles played by soldiers, and the tools that they utilize have changed, the author finds that social cohesion and solidarity has remained a staple of successful military warfare, even in the modern era. In doing this, the importance of sound leadership, effective decision-making in complex situations, and military transparency to infantry units are highlighted. The author makes it unequivocally clear that the modern combat soldier needs to evolve to fit the modern warfare landscape of the 21st Century as far as infantry units are concerned. This underscores a few of the challenges facing leadership in modern warfare and provides possible solutions to how these challenges can be effectively dealt with in the context of a modern infantry unit fighting in the 21st Century.
Woods, K. (2011). Ceasefire capitalism: Military–private partnerships, resource concessions and military–state building in the Burma–China borderlands. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(4), 747-770. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2011.607699
The role of the military in the modern warfare landscape has been found to be consistently changing depending on the circumstances surrounding the development and progression of wars. In essence, it has become quite clear that modern warfare is not entirely about obliterating opponent at every available opportunity, which is in itself a significant break from past traditional and conventional forms of warfare. In essence, this article examines the role of the military in the establishment of a ceasefire agreement between China and Burma, and how both militaries contributed towards the political developments of both countries insofar as counterinsurgencies, land concessions, and military territorialization are concerned. In this way, the militaries of both countries, and especially so in Burma, directly and indirectly influenced the political trajectories of both countries as well as the relationship between them. This examination underscored the importance of both soft and hard power in the modern military, and inadvertently emphasizes the need for military leaders in the 21st Century to acquire and develop a myriad of other relational skills in addition to military warfare strategy. This article is an apt representation of one way in which the role of a military can change depending on the war it fights. Furthermore, it underscores the fact that warfare is changing and militaries need to be trained in adapting to a variety of roles as required of them in different situations. In essence, this article highlights some of the complexities that surround modern warfare, and which can make it impossible to fight and win wars solely on conventional military strategies. It is an important article that, at its core, elaborately and critically underscores what a modern military in the 21st Century should be: powerful, adaptable, and flexible enough to be capable of adjusting to a variety of changing roles when required to.  
References
Bachmann, S. D., & Gunneriusson, H. (2015). Hybrid wars: The 21st-century’s new threats to global peace and security. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, 43(1), 77-98. doi: 10.5787/43-1-1110
Dansby, M. R., Stewart, J. B., & Webb, S. C. (Eds.). (2012). Managing diversity in the military: Research perspectives from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. Transaction Publishers.
Greenemeier, L. (2011). Post-9/11 technology brings exoskeletons, laser cannons to 21st-Century U.S. Military [Slide Show]. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/post-911-military-technology/
King, A. (2013). The combat soldier: Infantry tactics and cohesion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Woods, K. (2011). Ceasefire capitalism: military–private partnerships, resource concessions and military–state building in the Burma–China borderlands. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(4), 747-770. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2011.607699