Joint Ops 2030 receives NATO's 2011 Scientific Achievement Award

The NATO Research and Technology Board, the highest authority within the NATO Research and Technology Organization, has awarded the RTO 2011 Scientific Achievement Award to the Long-Term Scientific Study on Joint Operations 2030.

My colleague Frank Bekkers and myself spent much time and effort on this study on which I have already blogged. The letter from RTB Chairman Dr. Walker states that "this Award recognizes exceptional effort in significant RTO activities, excellence and originality in the scientific and technica! content therein, as well as outstanding results in terms of military benefit.' While we are of course proud to have received this award, I want to take advantage of this occasion to share some ideas on the way in which we conduct this type of research within the Alliance.

Power and capability planning

I already mentioned - in an entry with some more personal ruminations about 'power' - that HCSS is running a project (big in scope, small in funding...) on the Nature of Power.  Our interest in this was piqued from a number of different angles: our frustration with the limitations of the IR debate on these issues; our ongoing efforts to develop better data sets in the field of international relations; our fascination with the often simplistic debates about the future of power ('Decline of the West and Rise of the West' - power transition; or 'Decline of the state and rise of the non-state' - power diffusion). But it also had a powerful (pun intended) connection to the field of defence and security capability development.  If our view on the nature of power is broadening - EVEN in the field on international relations (see the discussions on 'soft' and 'smart' power - shouldn't this have some implications for the way in which we conceive of - and develop - defence capabilities? Are there untapped crevasses of real power that Westerm governments and defense organizations can start exploring and maybe even developing - just as we do with other areas of more traditional kinetic power?