The degree to which militaries have the inherent ability to adjust quickly to the actual war that they're confronted with as opposed to the

the war, the picture of the war they had in their mind, that may define their success or failure. But I also think, as Dave mentioned, there was an unwillingness to recognize

that these wars could go on. And this is where there was this failure of adaptability and a failure

of imagination among the senior leaders in the Pentagon.

Hey, welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm

John Amble, editorial director at MWI, and I'm joined by two guests for this episode, Dr. Nora

Benzahel and retired Lieutenant General Dave Barnell. They are both visiting professors of

strategic studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. There are also the authors

of a recently published book

called Adaptation Under Fire, How Militaries Change in Wartime. And that's the focus of our discussion.

How do military forces adapt from the strategic level down to the tactical level during war?

What are the hallmarks of an adaptable force? What types of leaders best create

cultures of adaptability in their formations? How do such forces employ rapidly changing technologies?

And something especially relevant for forces like the U.S. military that have an extraordinarily

robust set of doctrine governing how they operate? How does that doctrine play into this issue of

adaptation? My guest tackled these questions and more in a conversation I really enjoyed having

the opportunity to record. Before we get into it, as always, a couple quick notes. First, if you

aren't yet subscribed to the MWI podcast, find it on your favorite podcast app. And if you have a

second, please leave a rating or give it a review,

which really helps us reach new listeners. And second, as always, what you hear in this episode are

the views of the participants and don't represent those of West Point, the Army, or any other agency

of the U.S. government. All right, let's talk military adaptation.

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