National Defence College Research Articles

Generals in the classroom: Joint professional national security education in Israel and the United States

The national security realm poses great challenges to senior military officers and civilian officials. These leaders oftentimes attend designated Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) institutions as a prerequisite for their futrue appointments. The article examines how these colleges and universities instill in their graduates the intellectual capacity to effectively engage and solve macro-level and acute strategic challenges as well as employ critical thinking skills to ensure intellectual agility and flexibility. The article compares the Israel National Defense College (INDC) and the National Defense University (NDU) to identify the differences and similarities between the two institutions and explain what it says about the Israeli and the American strategic culture and approach to the future of national security.

The Cold War and Air Force Politics in Independent Nigeria (1960–1962)

Abstract The term “military” within the Nigerian context tends to be a misnomer for the Army, with the Navy and Air Force often at the scholarship margins. This article presents a corrective: it shifts the emphasis from the Nigerian Army within the historical discourse on politics and its impact on the military in Nigeria. The paper instead examines the Cold War political origins of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as an under-researched service branch of the Nigerian military. In 1962, after two years of political negotiations, Nigeria’s politicians shunned British overtures and opted for West German assistance in establishing an air force. In examining the Cold War political environment, including the actors and decision-making in the two years leading to that outcome, the article employs interview data and historical sources from the National Defence College Abuja and the UK National Archives, including communiqués, letters and other forms of official corpus.

Stakeholder engagement, military ties, and firm performance

AbstractCorporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder engagement have become increasingly important in the global economy. Socially responsible firms take their engagement with stakeholders seriously. Yet, the military, a very important stakeholder in Thailand is rarely investigated. Motivated by this and the importance of CSR and stakeholder engagement, we explore whether and which channels of military ties influence firm performance in the Thai stock market. To alleviate potential endogeneity and omitted variables concerns, we adopt two stages of least square instrumental‐variable analysis. Consistent with resource dependency theory, we find military ties increase firm performance and the influence of military ties is much stronger during the military‐led government. In general market conditions, this relation is in fact driven by the indirect ties through the training of the National Defence College of Thailand (NDCT). However, during military‐led government, the ties through NDCT worsen firm performance while direct military ties increase firm performance.

Being an Educator and Game Developer: The Role of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Non-Commercial Serious Games Production

Background and aim. Previous literature has discussed tensions between the field of game design and the field of education. It has been emphasized that it is important to address this tension when developing game based learning (GBL). In order to find potential ways of approaching this problem, we investigate the development of GBL when performed by those who have both pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and experience in game development. Method. Two case studies about serious games production were conducted, a game section at a national defense college and a university course in educational game design. The cases, as well as individual development projects within the settings, were analyzed with a focus on the role of PCK during serious games development. Results. While the developers and instructors at the defence college, who designed games for their in-house needs, had both PCK and knowledge about game development, these competencies varied a lot among the participants at the university course. The results show that educational goals added complexity to the design process. By comparison, some studied game projects at the university course avoided this complexity. These projects legitimized their games as educational by suggesting unproven far transfer. In other cases, where the developers did have PCK, the instructional goals where taken as a starting point that guided the whole development process. This lead to games that were designed to match highly specific educational contexts. The developers, instructors and teachers in both of the settings who used their PCK tended to break a number of established game design heuristics that would have been counter productive in relation to the learning objectives of the games. Conclusions. The paper suggests that there is a need for people with pedagogical content knowledge AND knowledge about game development. Enhancing these dual competencies in game workers could forward the field of GBL.

'Towards a ‘Science/Culture/Religion’ NETWORK OF NETWORKS: LEARN to LIVE and to PROGRESS 'together’ ', Volume 1 (Content, abstracts or first lines of the contributions, on the project essential)

'Towards a ‘Science/Culture/Religion’ NETWORK OF NETWORKS: LEARN to LIVE and to PROGRESS 'together’ ', Volume 1 (Content, abstracts or first lines of the contributions, on the project essential)

防衛庁防衛研修所戦史室著(野村實執筆)『大本営海軍部・聯合艦隊 -開戦まで-』(戦史叢書)

防衛庁防衛研修所戦史室著(野村實執筆)『大本営海軍部・聯合艦隊 -開戦まで-』(戦史叢書)

Team Learning in a Multinational Military Staff Exercise

International operations have become one of the main tasks for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). The SAF and Swedish National Defence College organize annual international staff exercises with the purpose of training officers to carry out effective staff work. This study analyzed a staff exercise using Edmondson’s team learning model in a military setting. The model was developed by including group cohesion. As defensive routines are a threat to team learning behavior, the possible presence of these was examined. The results indicate that team leader coaching is crucial to support all the variables in the model. The added variable of group cohesion contributed with insights on how the commander used task solving to create group cohesion. Some examples of defensive routines were also revealed but there seemed to be challenges in identifying such routines in this type of exercise setting.

Israel's National Security: Challenges and Assets

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsDan SchueftanDan Schueftan is the director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, the director of the International Graduate Program in National Security at that university, a visiting professor (2012–14) at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and a lecturer at the IDF National Defense College. For the last four decades he has been a consultant to Israeli decision makers and to the top echelon of Israel's government, military, and intelligence establishments. Dr. Schueftan has published extensively on contemporary Middle Eastern political history. His most recent book (2011) is Palestinians in Israel—The Arab Minority and the Jewish State.

Understanding Group and Leader (UGL) trainers' personality characteristics and affective profiles.

Background: The Understanding Group and Leader (UGL), provided by the Swedish National Defense College and mentored by UGL-trainers, is one of the most popular management programs among civilians in Sweden. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence regarding the training. We used the affective profile model (i.e., the combination of positive, PA, and negative affect, NA) to mapp important markers of empowerment, self-awareness, adaptive coping skills, and maturity among the UGL-trainers. The aims were: (1) to compare profiles between UGL-trainers and managers/supervisors and (2) to investigate differences in personal characteristics.Method: UGL-trainers (N = 153) and the comparison group (104 Swedish Chiefs of Police) completed an online survey on optimism, self-esteem, locus of control, and affect. The four profiles are: self-fulfilling (high PA, low NA), high affective (high PA, high NA), low affective (high PA, low NA), and self-destructive (low PA, high NA).Results: The self-fulfilling profile was more common among UGL-trainers (25.70%) than among Chiefs of Police (19.20%). UGL-trainers, compared to Chiefs of Police, were more likely to express a self-fulling than a low affective profile (OR = 2.22, p < 0.05) and a high affective than a low affective profile (OR = 1.43, p < 0.001). UGL-trainers with a self-fulfilling profile, compared to those with a self-destructive profile, scored higher in optimism, higher in self-esteem, and lower in external locus of control.Conclusions: The probability of self-fulfillment rather than low affectivity was higher among UGL-trainers. Self-fulfillment was associated to markers of self-awareness and adaptive coping skills. However, the most common profile was the low affective, which is associated to low performance during stress, low degree of personal development, low degree of purpose in life, and low resilience. Hence, it might be important for UGL-trainers to have a continuous training in awareness after certification.

Hybrid Wars: 21st Centuryys New Threats to Global Peace and Security

This article discusses a new form of war, ‘Hybrid War’, under inclusion of aspects of ‘cyber-terrorism’ and ‘cyber-war’ before the backdrop of Russia’s ‘Ukrainian Spring’ and the continuing threat posed by radical Islamist groups in Africa and the Middle East. It discusses the findings of an on-going Hybrid Threat project by the Swedish National Defence College. This interdisciplinary article predicts that military doctrines, traditional approaches to war and peace and its perceptions will have to change in the future.

North American Regional Security: A Trilateral Framework. By Richard J. Kilroy, Jr., Abelardo Rodriquez Sumano, and Todd S. Hataley, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2013.

North American Regional Security: A Trilateral Framework. By Richard J. Kilroy, Jr., Abelardo Rodriquez Sumano, and Todd S. Hataley, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Press, 2013.

Religion, the Russian Nation and the State: Domestic and International Dimensions: an Introduction

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgmentsEarlier versions of the articles in this special issue were presented at the international workshop ‘Religion, Politics and Policy-Making in Russia: Domestic and International Dimensions’ organised by the Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu, Estonia, 6–7 June 2012. The editors of this issue are grateful to CEURUS for sponsoring the workshop, to Piret Ehin, CEURUS director, to Siiri Maimets, Varje Kuut, and Britt Ressar for efficient administration of the workshop, and to all who submitted papers to this volume. We are also grateful to Alexander Agadjanian, Kaarina Aitamurto, Jelena Avanesova, Elina Kahla, Igor’ Kotin, Christopher Marsh, Victor Shnirelman, Marat Shterin, Meagan Todd and Aleksandr Verkhovsky, whose participation at the workshop greatly contributed to bringing this collective effort to completion. Jerry Pankhurst’s participation in the workshop and its preparation, and subsequent work on preparation of this introductory essay, took place while he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tartu in spring semester 2012. Finally, we are extremely grateful for the patient support, strong reviewing and clear editing of the contributions by Philip Walters and the anonymous reviewers. We deeply appreciate the opportunity to publish selected papers from the 2012 Tartu workshop in this issue of Religion, State & Society.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJerry G. PankhurstJerry Pankhurst is a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and director of the programme in Russian and Central Eurasian Studies at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, USA. He has pursued a long-term interest in the sociology of Russia and the post-Soviet realm, with growing focus on the broader European context. He has co-edited scholarly collections on Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age (AltaMira/Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) and Family, Religion and Social Change in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, 2000), as well as two volumes on the sociology of Soviet society. His articles have appeared in Journal of Church and State, Journal of Family Issues, Sociological Inquiry and numerous edited collections.Alar KilpAlar Kilp is a lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Tartu, Estonia. In 2012 he defended his doctoral thesis Church Authority in Society, Culture and Politics after Communism at the University of Tartu. His academic research deals with religion and politics, secularisation and church–state relations in postcommunist Europe. He has co-edited the volumes Extremism Within and Around Us (Tartu University Press, 2011) and Religion and Politics in Multicultural Europe (Tartu University Press, 2009). He has published articles in Kultura i Polityka, Forschungen zur Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte (Ugarit Verlag), Studies in Church History (Annuals of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science) and Proceedings of the Estonian National Defence College. Email: alar.kilp@ut.ee.

Five Myths about India's Nuclear Posture

For a democracy that otherwise leaks secrets like a sieve, India's entire nuclear journey has been shrouded in remarkable secrecy. It is therefore unsurprising that India has closely guarded the de...

Hetiidi impeeriumi ja Assüüria suurriigi suhted u 1365-1180 eKr

Keywords: Ancient Near East, Hittite Empire, Assyria, Middle Assyrian kingdom, war, conflict. This article addresses the complicated issues of Hittite-Assyrian relations and military conflicts from the second half of Middle Assyrian period (ca. 1365–1180 BCE) until the fall of the Hittite Empire (ca. 1180 BCE). The article is based on the analysis of Akkadian and Hittite cuneiform texts. We have some historical records (cuneiform texts) like treaties, letters, legal documents, etc., which show quite clearly the relations between the kings of Hatti and Assyria. The key events of these relations are mentioned in Hittite-Assyrian international correspondence (diplomatic letters), royal inscriptions, and annals. The article aims to reconstruct possible Hittite-Assyrian relations at the end of the Late Bronze Age on the basis of remaining written sources from this period. This is of course only a hypothetical image or mosaic that was proposed by the author; other reconstructions and hypotheses are also possible. In this article, some issues related to the establishment of the power of the Middle Assyrian kingdom during the fourteenth to thirteenth centuries BCE, and at the beginning of Assyrian expansion into northern Mesopotamian and North Syrian regions. These events caused several Hittite-Assyrian diplomatic crises and military conflicts and even wars between these two superpowers of the Late Bronze Age, during the thirteenth century. It seems that Assyrian-Hittite wars and military conflicts had begun already at the beginning of the first decades of the thirteenth century BCE, when Assyrian kings, including Adadnarari I and Salmanassar I, conquered and destroyed the powerful kingdom of Khanigalbat, which belonged to the Hurrians and had been for several years a satellite state of the Hittites. Before this event Khanigalbat was partly conquered by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I in the fourteenth century BCE. The aim of this state (it was turned into a vassal state) was to be a zone for protection of the Hittite empire’s territories from possible foreign invasions from southern and northern Mesopotamia. During the thirteenth century, Assyrians destroyed the remains of the kingdom of Khanigalbat (Mitanni), conquered it, and the Middle Assyrian kingdom got a border with the powerful Hittite empire, which controlled Anatolia and North Syria. This became the reason for many diplomatic and military conflicts between these two great powers during the thirteenth century BCE, until the Middle Assyrian kingdom weakened after the death of despotic Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta (1242–1206 BCE). At the same time, the weakened Hittite empire collapsed – it was conquered by invaders from the Aegean region, so-called “Sea Peoples”. This event took place in ca. 1190–1180 BCE. Struggles and conflicts between the Hittite empire and the Middle Assyrian kingdom during the thirteenth century BCE were partly documented (international correspondence, royal inscriptions, etc.), but there are not enough written sources from this period and this is a serious issue for reconstruction of Hittite-Assyrian relations. These relations were not strictly hostile, as we know from records that some of the period’s Assyrian and Hittite kings communicated as equal and probably friendly partners. There was also active trade and other relations (diplomatic, dynastic, etc.) between the Hittites and Assyrians. Vladimir Sazonov (b. 1979) is an Associate Professor at the Estonian National Defence College and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Oriental Studies, University of Tartu.

A Cold War Tourist and His Camera (review)

Reviewed by: A Cold War Tourist and His Camera Jacqueline Cannata A Cold War Tourist and His Camera. Martha Langford and John Langford. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011. Pp. 208, $39.95 Martha Langford and John Langford’s A Cold War Tourist and His Camera offers a unique analysis of images of Canada’s global presence during the Cold War. This study revolves around the sixteenth class year of Canada’s National Defence College as it learned about Canada’s national and international Cold War security strategies and later travelled through North America, Africa, and Europe in 1963. Asserting that ‘any photographic collection, amateur or professional, from the Cold War era can be interpreted contextually and imaginatively to shine light on the rhetoric and preoccupations of those times’ (4), Langford and Langford show that tourist photography at this time was an attempt to position the photographer and the audience within the Cold War and its surrounding landscape. Their treatment of the topic certainly confirms this view, as they reveal the intricate relationships between political climate, culture, personal vision, and slide photography. Part of the book’s appeal lies in its approach; rather than gathering the photos of just any National Defence College participant, the authors [End Page 516] use the slide photographs taken by their father, Warren Langford, as the basis of their study. Supplementing his 1963 slide collection are letters and postcards he wrote to his family while he travelled. This presents an opportunity to evaluate the image within its historical context and how the photos were displayed. Since the photos used in this study are slides, they were necessarily presented to other viewers – an act that Langford and Langford both remember from their childhoods and use as a fundamental piece of evidence. Consequently, they have endeavoured to organize and analyze the collection according to their father’s travel itinerary because it preserves ‘something of the photographic impulse’ (20). Important here is that the authors discuss their findings within the context of the photographer–viewer relationship, so casting the act of taking a photo as equal to its resulting image. Although using their father’s slide and communication collections is ultimately an effective and novel approach to Cold War–era photography, there were some points of this more personal account of the Cold War experience that could have benefitted from further explanation. At times, it seemed as though a familial anecdote’s meaning had been assumed but not explained. This is not to say that Langford and Langford’s approach was not objective enough – they generally successfully present their evidence and analysis without familial bias. However, that there are still some areas that need more attention does emphasize the challenges of maintaining a balance of personal histories within broader political and cultural events. Because of its emphasis on photography, Langford and Langford’s study is of particular interest to art, tourism, and cultural historians. However, the authors have made sure to situate their analysis within the historical context of the Cold War and so have provided detailed accounts of Canada’s foreign policies, its relations with other countries, and the international political climate. Consequently, by showing how these efforts were perceived by a ‘Cold War tourist’ and displayed to his family, this work presents a personal interpretation of Canada’s participation in the Cold War while simultaneously keeping a global perspective. The methodology employed by Langford and Langford is also commendable and quite useful to those working with photography collections or integrating photos within their research because of the authors’ attention to the process of taking and displaying slide photographs. The quality of the book itself enhances its use for photo historians. Not only are the images carefully chosen, explained, and analyzed, they are also reproduced with the utmost care and attention to quality. The images were not cropped and they are, where possible, organized [End Page 517] sequentially, so helping to illustrate the photographic impulse the authors incorporate within their analysis of the slide collection. In addition, the variety of photos included by the authors is partially what makes this study so important for scholars of tourism and Cold War histories because they collectively...

Understanding Intelligence Community Innovation in the Post-9/11 World

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsLars D. NicanderLars D. Nicander is Director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at Sweden's National Defense College. From 1997 to 2002, he was Secretary of the Swedish government's Cabinet Working Group on Defensive Information Operations. A political scientist, he has served in various positions within the Swedish national security establishment. Mr. Nicander is an elected member of the Institute of Strategic Studies in London and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.

Review: Canada's Voice The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes

CANADA'S VOICE The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes Adam Chapnick Vancouver UBC Press, 2009. 384pp, $32.95 paper ISBN 978-0774816724Adam Chapnick has written a fascinating and extremely well-researched book about John Wendell Holmes, whose work for the Canadian Institute of International Affairs covered three different periods of his life and is celebrated annually in an issue of the International Journal dedicated to his memory. Sandwiched in between his CIIA stints were 16 years in External Affairs, into which he parachuted during World War II in 1943 and from which he was secretively forced to resign in late 1959 as part of an ongoing purge of homosexuals in sensitive positions. In the fourth stage of his life, Holmes remained involved with the CIIA at a less intense level while teaching and mentoring postgraduates at the University of Toronto and Glendon College and commenting on Canadian foreign policy. Chapnick had access to Holmes's papers and carried out extensive interviews with former colleagues and friends. The resulting narrative weaves together a myriad of fascinating strands concerning Holmes, warts and all.Chapnick describes Holmes as embodying the ideals of postwar Canadian foreign policy. was an integral part of the cadre of civil servants who dominated the Canadian public arena during the nation's formative years as a world player. He played an equally crucial role in shaping the way that diplomats, scholars, and statespeople abroad understood Ottawa and its citizens, Chapnick writes. For students and practitioners of international affairs at home and around the world, he was Canada's voice (x).That someone whom Chapnick reveals as having a natural tendency towards indecision could end up playing such a role is just one of the many contradictions that come to light in the book. Holmes's trademark was to stress the importance of paradox in the formulation of Canadian foreign policy, and his own career and personal life were full of paradoxes in their own right. Some of Holmes's concerns and preoccupations (e.g., the importance of the Commonwealth and staying out of the Organization of American States) may have been somewhat overtaken by events, but many of his views, particularly the importance of managing relations with the United States and the value of the United Nations, still ring true today.Holmes's diplomatic career took him to London, Paris, Moscow, New York, the National Defence College in Kingston, and finally, killer's row in the east block of Parliament Hill, where he served as assistant undersecretary. reached this level in half the time that it took most other diplomats. En route to London, Holmes carried a letter from George Ignatieff to Alison Grant proposing marriage. However, she was unable to decipher Ignatieff's handwriting and it was up to Holmes to propose marriage on his friend's behalf.A 10-month posting to Moscow as charge d'affaires in 1947-48 ultimately led to Holmes's dismissal from External in 1959 because of the homosexual affair he had while in the Soviet Union. (Chapnick points out that the affair was not with a Soviet agent assigned to discredit Holmes (113).) But during the late 1940s and through the 1950s, he was a close confidant of the senior establishment in Ottawa at both the political and bureaucratic levels, and he served as mentor to many young foreign service officers. While at the National Defence College, Holmes enunciated six principles of Canadian foreign policy. His analysis drew on Louis St. Laurent's Gray lecture of 1947, but emphasized the centrality of foreign trade, the need for a counterweight to the United States, and the importance of being realistic about the extent of Canada's international influence. …

Live Fire Exercise: Preparing for Cyber War

In May 2010, the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and the Swedish National Defence College hosted the Baltic Cyber Shield (BCS) international cyber defense exercise (CDX). For two days, six Blue Teams from northern European government, military and academic institutions defended simulated power generation companies against a Red Team of 20 hostile computer hackers. The scenario described a volatile geopolitical environment in which a hired-gun Rapid Response Team of network security personnel defended Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) from cyber attacks sponsored by a non-state terrorist group. This article covers the origin and evolution of CDXs, and it describes the design, goals and lessons learned from BCS 2010.

Distance education and e-learning: The SANDF should get it right!

Education in South Africa is a controversial issue. In the military context, education is even more complex. The South African military struggled and is still struggling to development an educational ethos at those Education, Training and Development (ETD) institutions primarily responsible for education. This specifically concerns the Military Academy and its Faculty of Military Science, the National War College and the National Defence College. Worldwide military education faces an era that is primarily information driven, in which electronic and other forms of communication has made distance almost irrelevant, and in which there is a growing demand for well-educated soldier-diplomats and soldier-scholars. These considerations necessitate the development and roll-out of a distance education (DE) and e-learning system in the SANDF as a matter of urgency.

An information assurance curriculum for commanding officers using hands-on experiments

To authorize and initiate necessary investments and enforce appropriate policies and procedures, decision-makers need to have at least a fair understanding of computer security fundamentals. This paper presents the course design and the laboratory settings that have been developed for, and used within, the high rank officer curriculum at the Swedish National Defence College. The developed course looks at computer security from an attack versus defend viewpoint, meaning that computer attacks are studied to learn about prevention and self-defense. The paper discusses the pedagogical challenges related to education of high rank officers and similar personnel in light of recently-held courses and contrasts the course relative to similar undertakings. A standpoint taken is that computer security is best taught using hands-on laboratory experiments focusing on problem solving assignments. This is not undisputed since, e.g., high rank officers are busy people who are not fond of getting stuck learning about the peripherals.