Beyond the buzzwords: some thoughts on interoperability and military change challenges in Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Innovation spreads not only through new technologies but also through new processes and concepts populating international and security studies. Consequently, the popularity of these concepts, extensively diffused across defence documents worldwide, does not emerge alone. Difficulties in estimating how much of them became tacit knowledge and how successfully these new processes and concepts were adopted come as a plus. That scene depicts the diffusion of “interoperability,” quickly aggregated to the defence vocabulary but arguably translated into practice, particularly from an organisational standpoint. Provided that significant challenges lie ahead of regions where the debate still requires a more solid groundwork, this study addressed Brazil’s interoperability state of the art. We performed a qualitative analysis based on the very same referential used in the country’s latest CONOPS in this regard – Tolk’s Measures of Merit in Coalition Operations Model. By doing so, we aimed to establish a dialogue with the current perspective of the country whilst showing that neglecting the organisational aspects of interoperability poses practical consequences, undermining a complete translation of this central capability into practice. We argue that interoperability adoption stands for far more than its reproduction across the defence metier, comprising organisational change underpinned by reforms in civil-military relations..