Military Organizations, Complex Machines: Modernization in the U.S. Armed Services (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs) - Hardcover

Demchak, Chris C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801424682 ISBN 13: 9780801424687

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1991

Synopsis

Chris Demchak explores the reasons why military machines surprise their users and how they can change both the complexity and effectiveness of tactical organizations. She uses the Army's experiences with its M1 Abrams tank, as well as other examples, to explain the interaction of complex technology and militaries that seek to control uncertainty. Under some conditions, Demchak demonstrates, complexity in critical machines induces increased complexity in the organizations that use them, and can produce an army different from the one that was intended. Drawing on organization theory and her data, she argues that understanding this interaction will heavily influence whether armed forces reductions, savings, and modernization produce rapid, successful military organizations or lethally unpredictable ones.

About this title

About the Author

Chris C. Demchak, a political scientist, teaches at the University of Arizona.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801424682
• ISBN 13: 9780801424687
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224