Typewriter Leadership in a Facebook World
Abstract
Historically, information was a form of power closely guarded, secured, and provided only when there was a need to know. Modern communication equipment and the internet make global news available to anyone who wants it, or wants to provide it. Senior military leaders grew up in the Military during a period when this technology was not a reality. In a very short period of time, typewritten forms were replaced by e-mails and instant messaging. Failing to adapt to the speed at which information travels has plagued today's military leadership. Legacy policies towards information management have crippled the nation's efforts against terrorism, creating a military that is reactive and defensive towards what Thomas L. Friedman refers to as "A Flat World." This monograph focuses on this failure and indicates a way ahead in understanding strategic communications within the military, and in creating a culture that is both proactive and adaptive to the realities of strategic communications in the 21st Century. Military leadership failed to understand the strategic impact of key events in Afghanistan and Iraq. Compounding this lack of understanding was the inability to visualize the second and third order effects of military plans and operations in the strategic landscape. The failure to visualize these effects resulted in strategic messages that were reactive, defensive, and unresponsive to the fast-paced, global-media world they faced. This monograph looks at communications failures going as far back as the NATO Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in 1999, but focuses on more recent failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, including those of Corporal Patrick Tillman and Abu Ghraib. These failures had damaging effects on both immediate operational objectives and long-term strategic goals. Military culture is slowly changing, but it will fail to adapt to the "Flat World" if all military leaders educated by typewriter leadership fail to adapt to the Facebook World.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 21, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA507984
Entities
People
- Drew R. Meyerowich
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College