Søren Sjøgren

Webinar

There seems to be something badly wrong with the command of western armed forces. Headquarters are too big. They produce orders which are too long. They take too long to do so. This is Professor Jim Storr’s argument in his latest book Something Rotten. 

Since the Cold War's end, land headquarters have become increasingly bigger. A standard US division now has 400 staff officers in its headquarters, and the two-star Regional Command South headquarters in Afghanistan swelled up to 1200 staff officers at its peak. This, however, does not translate to efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, this leads to orders that are too long, too comprehensive and take too much time to produce.

This is a continuing trend. As an example, the British 7th armoured division in Iraq in 2003 issued its order for the attack on Basra after the city fell; the OP order for Joint Guardian (Kosovo 1999) arrived one month late.

The RDDC has invited Dr Storr to discuss his thesis with the main emphasis on planning procedures and the production of orders.

Agenda

14:00-14:05: Short introduction by the RDDC Institute of Leadership and Organisation

14:05-14:25: Presentation by Dr Storr

14:25-15:00: Q&A moderated by the RDDC Institute of Military Operations

If you would like to attend, please use your official (work) e-mail address to show affiliation with either military, government agency or a university in a NATO member state. The zoom link will be forwarded to your email no later than 60 min before the webinar.

The seminar is via Zoom and thus unclassified.