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Aims to explains the mismatches between political discourse and military momentum in the US handling of the Cuban missile crisis by using the model of the potential autopoiesis of subsystems. Under wartime conditions, the codes of political and military communications can increasingly be differentiated.

The model of a further differentiation between political and military power is developed on the basis of a detailed description of the Cuban missile crisis. The concept of a “semi‐dormant autopoiesis” is introduced for the difference in the dynamics between peacetime and wartime conditions.

Several dangerous incidents during the crisis can be explained by a sociocybernetic model focusing on communication and control, but not by using an organization‐theoretical approach. The further differentiation of the military as a subsystem became possible in the course of the twentieth century because of ongoing learning processes about previous wars.

Politicians should not underestimate autonomous military processes or the significance of standing orders. In order to continually produce communications within the military, communication partners are needed that stand outside the hierarchy, and this role can be fulfilled by an enemy. A reflexively imagined enemy can reinforce the autopoiesis of the military subsystem.

The paper shows that civilian control over military affairs has become structurally problematic and offers a sociocybernetic explanation of the missile crisis. The potential alternation in the dynamics under peacetime and wartime conditions brings historical specificity back on the agenda of social systems theory.

The chapter deals, though the analysis of several studies on that theme, with asymmetric warfare and its nature as well as the military issues that it creates. The new techniques devised in recent years by the military intelligentsia – RMA, NCW, NEC, EBO – in fact, certainly constitute useful refinements of the military machine and perfections of its functioning that enable it to achieve the highest performance, and as such they should be appreciated. However, they appear cut out for a war reality that is only partially that of asymmetric warfare. Today, the weak side's offensive tool is man, and man is no longer a person who carries and operates a weapon but is himself a weapon who sacrifices himself to strike the adversary, and he does this because his mind has been convinced to do it. Thus, the only winning weapon in this type of contest is to intervene on the mechanisms of conditioning the minds of millions of human beings, a task that is only in small part military but is instead on a vast political scale. The military can intervene in this direction especially by making politicians understand that, in today's asymmetric warfare, victory – and the survival of Western values – can be achieved only through co-ordinated, joint political action, where the military function can consist principally in a containment action suitable for giving time to the political initiative to bear its fruits.

Sexual misconduct (sexual assault and sexual harassment) in the US military is a long-standing problem. The military has implemented many policies and programs to address sexual misconduct in its ranks. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the processes of military sexual misconduct policy and programs have evolved since the 1940s.

Punctuated equilibrium and multiple streams theories were the guiding frameworks for this process analysis of the policies and programs implemented to address military sexual misconduct based on existing literature, news media and press.

Three punctuations are found in military sexual misconduct policy that demonstrate large-scale departures from the periods of equilibrium as the result of either a significant sexual misconduct allegation or new survey findings revealing sexual misconduct prevalence rates. In between these major-issue defining events, incremental policy change has occurred resulting in a period of stasis or return to the status quo requiring correction. Despite returns to stasis, each policy punctuation has built on the prior punctuation, generating new military directives, policies and programs.

Using the lenses of punctuated equilibrium and multiple stream theories, this paper shows how the processes of US military sexual misconduct policies and programs have evolved. The US military and militaries globally can utilize these policy frameworks to help predict future patterns of military sexual misconduct and improve responses to these problems.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if business practices for performance through risk control methods can be applied by defence forces in peace missions called for by the United Nations (UN) in order to improve the efficiency of such missions.

Extensive studies of existing theories on business cooperation risk control were performed as well as studies of the organizational and legal structures for Swedish participation in international military missions. These studies were followed by interviews with politicians and military officers of high ranks regarding cooperation in such missions and the interviews were analyzed with respect to the theoretical methods and their validity for the military sector.

The authors' conclusion is that an adoption of some of the existing business risk control management methods could improve the efficiency of military risk management. The first step in such organizational knowledge transfer is to improve the form for and the formulation of more stringent objectives for the military mission.

The study indicates how the performance of international peace missions can be improved by application of risk control methods from the business sector.

State leaders’ decision-making calculus is often attributed to external factors. The political arena, international community pressure and a country’s military stance all take centre stage in the analysis of national security decisions. Little weight is given to personal aspects of a leader’s psyche in explaining these decisions; this is true to the bulk of the research regarding this topic. This study theorizes and tests a positive link between Israeli leaders’ combat military experience and their propensity to enter into ‘peacemaking’ decisions namely, peace talks, cease fires and unilateral withdrawals. This research uses a new database comprising all peacemaking decision points in Israel’s history, looking at the pressure put on a leader from outside factors and his military experience to explain the decision taken. It finds a strong significant link between combat experience and the tendency to enter in a peacemaking decision with little regard to ideological affiliation, shedding a new light on Israeli politicians from both sides of the aisle.

Availability of military systems is of major concern for military planners at both tactical (battle) level and at strategic level (long‐term national planning). Availability factors critically affect the operational effectiveness during military operations. Military systems are complex and lend themselves to simulation approach for availability estimation as analytical solutions are extremely difficult. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the method of systems modeling to approach the simulation for availability estimation of military systems.

Availability measures are needed for two main domains of application: peacetime operations and battlefield situations. Availability measures include not only inherent availability of interest to designers/manufacturers, but also operational availability and field/service availability. The simulation approach adopted here involves discrete event simulation (DES) techniques using Monte Carlo methods since a network of events can be included in the model. A system engineering approach is emphasized, starting with system representation and characterisation, and using system aggregation techniques.

Modeling involves hierarchical models and network diagrams for events. First the system is described by a hierarchical model; the events and transitions are represented with state transition diagrams (STD). The simulation scheme would be based on initial resources or inventory as military operations proceed, with random variates for event times or rates. The availability as a function of time A(t) is arrived at. The reliability and maintainability models are simulated with probability distributions or using empirical distributions. The methods of data collection and analysis, and sensitivity analysis are mentioned. The methodology is explained with two case studies from the authors' work. The approaches of other workers in recent years are summarised.

The paper shows that the simulation models can suitably be modified to include their applications for army and navy military operations. Also, with proper data on all major subsystems of interest for the weapon platform and accurate past war data, it is possible to fine‐tune the models for online use during military campaigns. The availability figures thus obtained may also be used for procurement decisions for long‐term and strategic planning.

The amnesty, reconciliation, and reintegration (AR2) process in a fractured and fragmented society may require assistance from the security sector to become fully operational. This article develops a framework for how such assistance may be implemented, based on current and developing US military operational doctrines and national security documents. It considers briefly the implementation of such principles via a discussion of the AR2 process in Northern Ireland.