THE ART OF MILITARY INNOVATION - LESSONS FROM THE ISRAEL

A world-leading military strategist and an IDF insider explain the improbable success of the Israeli armed forces. When the Israel Defense Forces was established in May 1948 it was small poorly equipped and already at war. Lacking sufficient weaponry or the domestic industrial base to produce it the newborn military was forced to make do with whatever it could get its hands on.That spirit of improvisation carried the IDF to a decisive victory in the First Arab-Israeli War. Today the same spirit has made the IDF the most powerful military in the Middle East and among the most capable in the world.In The Art of Military Innovation Edward N. Luttwak and Eitan Shamir trace the roots of this astounding success. What sets the IDF apart they argue is its singular organizational structure.From its incep-tion it has been the world’s only one-service military encompassing air naval and land forces in a single institutional body. This unique structure coupled with a young officer corps allows for initiative from below. The result is a nimble organization inclined toward change rather than beholden to tradition. The IDF has fostered some of the most significant advances in mil-itary technology of the past seventy years from the first wartime use of drones to the famed Iron Dome missile defense system and now the first laser weapon Iron Beam. Less-heralded innovations in training logistics and human resources have been equally import-ant. Sharing rich insights and compelling stories Luttwak and Shamir reveal just what makes the IDF so agile and effective.