The contemporary international system encompasses complex security threats and rapid societal changes. Challenges such as terrorism, informational warfare, cybersecurity, nuclear proliferation, and great power competition affect how societies prepare and deploy armed forces. Hence, military change is a chief aspect of the contemporary world.

Yet, why and how military organisations change and innovate is subject to substantial scholarly discussion, given militaries are complex, hierarchical, and conservative bureaucracies. The international environment, technology, socialisation, strategic culture, bureaucratic competition, and civil-military relations are just a few possible explanations for the issue.

What factors drive change in contemporary military organisations? How have armed forces engaged in reforms worldwide? These are the questions this panel will address, including focusing on  military change, military innovation, and defence reform from a cross-national, cross-regional, and multidisciplinary perspective.

The panel presents a diverse set of theoretical approaches from different regions with distinct strategic cultures, historical paths, and patterns of civil-military relations. The main goal is to explore societies and military organisations’ quest to innovate, improve efficiency, and develop effective defence and security apparatus from distinct perspectives.

About the panel

• Chair: Dr Bence Nemeth – Lecturer in Defence Studies
  
  
• Why and how is France Transforming its Land Army? Tensions, Dynamics and the Quest of Balance — Lucy Pebay, PhD candidate, University of Bath.

• Understanding the Turkish defence offset regulations: Why and how they have changed through the years 2002-2020? — Mehmet Sahin, PhD Candidate, Department of Defence Studies
  
  
• Institutional Change in a Post-Authoritarian Military: The Case of Tunisian Military Transformation – Onur Kara, PhD Candidate, Department of War Studies.
  
  
• Fostering change and transformation: institutional interoperability as a factor to drive and sustain military change – Tamiris Santos, PhD student, Cranfield University.