Free Strategic Thinking Essay Sample
Strategic thinking is applied in all the undertakings; it requires a person to understand the role of the decisions and the individual function as the decision maker. Strategic thinking means the use of different kinds of cognitive processes which employees in order to choose the action or the strategy in a situation which involve other agents; this is in consideration of the fact that different people are choosing acts or the strategies by applying the same factors. Strategic thinking enables a person to gain means of disguising weakness and exploit the strengths a tick which is essential in conducting ones operations.
According to Strategic thinking has its roots in the early military institutions, the military roots provides the best framework for the origin strategy, with generals such as Carl Von Clausewitz who employed strategies in guiding their military activities. The ancient armies had to discover different ways of exploiting their strengths and the weaknesses of their enemies. Strategic thinking during the ancient times enabled them to conceal their deals until the last the right opportunities had been provided, at the same time they were able to determine the abilities and intentions of the opponents.
The current concepts of strategic thinking were inherited from the above ancient roots , however with the technological advancements more concepts on strategic thinking have emerged, whereby strategic thinking has a greater role in the management. The aspects of coordination and synergy are infused in the decision making and the implementation of the strategies. The coordination of different units is the modern essence of strategy which is contrary to the ancient perception where strategic thinking was viewed as the leadership task. Technological changes have brought in the aspect of competition due to the easiness to access the information for comparison purposes.
The technological development in the recent times have brought a new means of strategy, this is due to the improvements in the design the electronic gadgets which have enabled the consumers such as the military gain limitless advantages in terms of mobility and complex means of communication. Compared to the ancient times, the modern military has benefited a lot due to the technological changes that have enhanced strategic thinking, for instance, it the computation of data related to military activities has been enabled by the availability of more sophisticated technologies.
The technological breakthrough has transformed strategic thinking with the use of more sophisticated gadgets. For instance the invention of the calculator led to the subsequent evolution of the personal computers from the Desktops to the laptops, the modern electronics have been advanced to provide the consumers with the ability to transmit the videos, voice and data all over the world. These changes in the technology, provides consumers with the applications which have changed the military strategies due to the reliable data processing and the communication avenues. The military bases around the world have greatly benefited from the technological advance which also has great influences to the strategies that are laid down.
In the case of military, the technological advancement has benefited the military forces with high mobility and the unlimited firepower. The forces can strategize and carry out numerous attacks, these is the direct response to the problems that are posed by the technological changes. The nations have formed the intelligence communities which offer the precise estimates to the capabilities of the opponents. The possibility of surprise attacks has caused the need for the strategic importance.
The technological changes have brought in a breed of intensive conflicts which are characterized by mobility, high speed and the long range attacks which employ the joint operations by various forces whether in the air, on the land, the sea or the battle spaces with electro-magnetism, all this heavily rely on the availability of lethal and high technology weapons.
The change in technology has brought the world's military into the new kind of revolution from the industrial era to the information age. During the past years, the revolutions were based on the changes in the societal set up, however in the modern era the scenario has shifted to technological and organizational changes which emphasizes on the military innovations as the driving factor.
For, the post cold war era has seen the United States military implementing the on -going strategies to establish its military, despite the fact that the United States military has numerous advantages over the other world nations its aim is to increase its dominance. The military technological transformation has brought in new platforms to act as the carriers for the innovations to in the technological changes which include information, communication and the computations. In most cases the transformations include the exploitation of the new approaches to the operational concepts and the capabilities. The use of new technologies coupled with the advanced forms of organizational strategies forms the main characteristics of the military reforms.
The old tactics of conducting war have been rendered obsolete by the technological changes, the transformational aspects of the military involve the fundamental changes in the way the war is conducted and the emergence of new means of conducting the wars. Strategic thinking helps to shape the changing nature of the military competition through the use of a combination of the concepts and the capabilities to protect the nations against their vulnerable factors in the process of maintaining the strategic positions.
The features of the transformed military include; the Networked platforms, weapons, and sensors, the ability to maintain the distributed forces and capabilities in various locations, conducting of operations under high speeds of command, deployment, and employment. The agile forces which are able to operate simultaneously in different geographical and the environmentally setups, maintaining the high quality of expeditionary forces, High Precision ability in the global engagement, it has the ability to share the situational awareness with the networked sensors which provide the common operational picture which facilitates the efforts collaboration and means to self-synchronization, it maintains the flexible forces, It maintains sustainable forces.
The process of the transformation encompasses a vast array of new and the emerging technologies and capabilities. The unmanned systems are advantageous since they saturate the battle spaces from the space to under the oceans and the seas. The technological advancements ensure that the sensors are accurate and viable for various applications.
The military Technological innovations have enabled smaller, faster, and lighter ships which ply the seas and oceans for the forces which are based at the seas. The Hypersonic crafts have also been invented to operate in the space. These calls for the new forms of kinetic energy have been deployed. However, the Nanotechnologies have become pervasive due to the technological changes. The changes in the Biotechnology can easily erode the distinctive nature between human beings and machine.
Through the strategic thinking in the military, the nonlethal technologies have been employed to disable the enemy combatants and however this has a bad implication because they can have negative effects to the lethal technologies. Information Technology lies at the centre of all the transformations in the military. The Information Technology is the heart of the Information era. The role played by the strategic thinking has broadened the application of the Information Technology in the military strategies which has earned many privileges. The information superiority is the key enabler for the transformation in the military this is because Information and knowledge are the key ingredients to strategic thinking. The technological changes acts as the source of superiority for the force which have the fastest ability to adapt to the changes which guarantees dominance and maneuvers in the world
Strategic thinking enhanced by the technological changes enables the military to practice precision engagement, carry out focused logistics, and over full dimensional protection to the citizens of a given nation. Information technology is a key component because it makes it possible for the critical characterization of a transformed, information era force which is networked. The essence of Networking is to allow for the distribution of the forces and their capabilities, increase the speed of command, and deployment.
The technology has changed strategic thinking in terms of warfare to the extent that the victory will only be for the combatants who are capable of maneuvering very fast as compared their adversaries. The intelligence services for instance, require an increase in the proportion of the tech-savvy talent in order to track, properly target, and defend themselves against their adversaries using their information tools and capabilities.
World countries such as China, India, Pakistan, and Russia are involved in the expansion of their Information Technology talent bases. This has increased their, information Technology market share at faster rate as compared to the United States. A slight change in their strategic thinking has great influence on the strengths of their intelligence services which increases in relation to those of United States intelligence.
The changes in technology has resulted to a new dimension in the world wars, with cyber-wars taking the center stage, preferably the cyber war will be played out on landscapes of the commercial Information Technology, the intelligence agencies in such cases require the formation of new alliances in collaboration with the private sector, this also applies to the existing relationships between the world's nation states.
Strategic thinking on the other had requires the Intelligence Communities to handle the major problems such as the performing intelligence which is involved in the preparation of cyber battle spaces by assessing the capabilities and the intentions of the adversaries who have hidden the information on their weapons and have made their defenses to be very much invisible, through strategic thinking it is possible to decide on the distinctive separation between the cyber defense and the cyber intelligence. In order to determining the personnel to be in charge of the national security, the country or administration needs to establish the performance functions which straddle the offensive, defensive, and the intelligence missions of both the uniformed services forces and the intelligence agencies.
The growing importance of information technology in the warfare has the potential to change the way in which the intelligence agencies supports the atom-based conflicts in the world. The new technology will enable the collection of the real-time intelligence information for the purposes of the fast-changing tactical engagements; however the mainstay products of the Intelligence Community, is based on the serialized reports which are very slow for the dissemination of high-tech indicators as a way of giving the warnings.
There is need for faster means of delivering and protection of the raw collection of information so that the real-time intelligence information is sent directly to the shooters without involving the multiple levels created by the bureaucracy of the military intelligence analysts. These can be achieved by the use of the remote sensors which are designed to report on the capabilities, the intentions, and the activities of all the armed forces, it is hoped that this will also be important in the efforts to find and monitor the terrorists activities. The radically changes in technology has resulted into the new sensing networks which covers the whole world as a means to the collection of the pinpoint intelligence especially on the individual targets.
The technological changes may happen so fast to the extent that the roles played by various agents are not clearly defined. In such cases strategic thinking will be required to make the distinction between the intelligence and the tactical operations on data such as the contact reports and some of the significant military activity reports should not be blurred since the national intelligence role is focused on the real-time tactical missions. The source analysts are required to include the tactical operations which can directly report to their authority.
In conclusion the trends as evidenced by the technological changes in areas especially where there is the new face of War means the targets can misses the mark due to the following reasons; First, is that the military prowess in the near future will not be based on the ability to create the link between the precision zapping and the deployment of very small number of personnel under the networked forces.
Instead some of the crucial missions, such as the peacekeeping, will be dependent on the presence and the capabilities of forces which have mastered the basics of the technological warfare. This is clear that the numbers have lost their importance due to the influence of technological changes on the military strategies. These has brought the realization that the intelligence agencies should improve on their tracking techniques and the information collection strategies by employing robust targeting means and the force protection capabilities.