The Defence Horizon Journal - Podcasts

This article examines how emerging disruptive technologies during 1989–1993 affected the execution and doctrinal understanding of mission command principles in the U.S. Armed Forces. The analysis builds on an event-based cumulative coding process in which a selection of specific doctrines, technological advancements, and named operations are treated as key events and coded on a stepped scale (-1, 0, +1) over two dimensions: doctrine (d) and practical implementation in operations (p). The codes are cumulatively summed and visualised using an iterative model. Technologies are treated in two tracks: as inhibitors of MC principles and as facilitators of MC principles. Tactical-level technologies are mostly supportive of such principles, whereas network-level implementations show degraded trust between command levels. The doctrinal revision of FM 100-5 in 1993 is consistent with the patterns identified in the model. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

The education of Portuguese lieutenants and captains remains overly transmissive and assessment-driven, with limited integration of emerging technologies such as AI, commercial drones and networked simulation, and insufficient emphasis on critical thinking, writing and lifelong learning. This study proposes a three-dimensional framework to realign officer education with this new reality: a tactical-operational dimension that translates lessons from Ukraine into competencies such as dispersed manoeuvre, human–machine teaming and multidomain C2; a pedagogical dimension that replaces lecture-centric models with scenario-based learning, red teaming, Tactical Decision Games, AI-enabled simulations and reflective after-action reviews; and an ethical-intellectual dimension that develops “wider officer competence” through structured professional reading, writing and discussion of moral and political dilemmas. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

The accelerating pace of digitalisation and autonomous systems challenges traditional officer education. Future leaders must be prepared to operate in environments shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and complex ethical dilemmas. This paper explores how AI driven simulation can enhance readiness and adaptability in officer training, ensuring that cadets develop both technical competence and strategic judgment. Current training models often fail to replicate the unpredictability of modern battlefields. Without integrating emerging technologies, officer education risks lagging behind adversaries who adopt them aggressively. The absence of adaptive, tech-driven methods limits cadets' opportunities to practice decision-making under uncertainty and to confront the ethical and legal questions raised by autonomous systems. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Military documentation plays a central role in training and operational practice, yet its quality is rarely evaluated from the perspective of actual use. Documents tend to prioritise completeness and regulatory compliance over clarity. This results in materials that are information dense, cognitively demanding, and prone to misinterpretation, particularly under time pressure. This article proposes a conceptual framework that integrates eye-tracking research with generative large language models (LLMs) to support the assessment and improvement of military training documentation. The framework envisions eye-tracking data, including fixation durations, regression patterns, and pupil dynamics, collected from representative military personnel, as empirical ground truth for identifying specific structural and linguistic barriers in documents. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Force designers face demanding methodological challenges when considering how best to adapt concepts, successfully adopt new technologies, and overhaul existing structures and processes amid a fundamentally changing geostrategic environment. The Defence Metaverse, an ultra-realistic virtual twin of the battlefield, and powerful new red AI tactics offer sovereign European solutions to tackle these challenges by stress-testing the assumptions underpinning concepts, procurement decisions, and training against adaptive non-conventional peer adversaries. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Traditional military training methods often reach their limits in complex deployment scenarios, particularly with respect to cost, the ability to realistically recreate high-risk situations, and the objective evaluation of performance. To optimise training effectiveness, integrating innovative technologies such as mixed reality (MR) is increasingly important. MR combines the real and virtual worlds, enabling new training approaches. This article addresses the key question of how MR's transformative potential can be leveraged in military training to enhance trainees' situational awareness (SA) and the effectiveness of instructor support. Situational awareness, defined as the perception, understanding, and anticipation of the environment, is essential for making quick, informed decisions in tactical contexts. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Military ethics education is an important aspect of military training. As military personnel may face difficult ethical dilemmas, the competence to handle them correctly is crucial. Currently, there is a desired transition within the Dutch military from a rule-based ethics education (functional) to a more virtue-based approach (aspirational), placing greater emphasis on character building rather than rules and order. At the same time, ethics and ethics education are influenced by changing contexts, such as contemporary technological developments in warfare. However, currently it remains unclear what the effectiveness of ethics education is and to what extent it integrates both these developments. This empirical study investigated the individual experiences of the participants of a specific ethics course, the Trainer Course in Military Ethics (TCME), as a contribution to a larger study on the effectiveness of ethics education in the Dutch military. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Seabed warfare is transforming maritime strategy by shifting competition from platforms and manoeuvre toward infrastructure, connectivity, and persistent monitoring, influence and selective control over the benthic domain. Growing dependence on critical undersea infrastructure, combined with advances in autonomous systems and distributed sensing, is turning the seabed into an active and contested battlespace. This article argues that traditional concepts of sea control and deterrence are increasingly insufficient for understanding conflict in this evolving environment. Building on the concepts of seabed control and liminal warfare, it examines how technological change, infrastructural vulnerability, and legal ambiguity reshape maritime strategy and enable persistent competition below the threshold of open conflict. The article concludes that adapting to seabed warfare requires doctrinal innovation, resilience, and closer integration between military, civilian, and alliance structures. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

Maritime chokepoints are commonly portrayed as critical vulnerabilities capable of triggering systemic disruption across the global economy. The concentration of trade and energy flows through corridors such as the Suez Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca, and the Panama Canal has reinforced concerns regarding the fragility of contemporary globalisation. This article argues that contemporary maritime chokepoints create significant strategic vulnerabilities, but they do not necessarily render the global trading system fragile. Drawing on recent disruptions, including the Evergiven blockage, the Red Sea security crisis, and operational constraints affecting the Panama Canal, the article distinguishes between exposure to disruption and systems' capacity to absorb, adapt to, and recover from shocks. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal

An increasing number of contemporary conflicts appear to resist decisive resolution under specific structural conditions. This argument does not suggest that all wars follow the same trajectory. Rather, it identifies specific structural configurations under which decisive outcomes become less likely. For the purposes of this article, “strategic closure” refers to the production of a durable political outcome through military action, whether by decisive battlefield victory, negotiated settlement, regime collapse, or the consolidation of a new strategic equilibrium. The argument advanced here is not that all wars become stalemated, but that under certain structural conditions, the probability of achieving such strategic closure declines significantly. Nuclear deterrence, technological transparency, alliance commitments, and economic interdependence constrain pathways toward decisive military resolution without ending conflict. Conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and escalating confrontations in the Middle East are used here as illustrative cases of a broader phenomenon in which multiple escalation-constraining mechanisms operate simultaneously. They do not, by themselves, establish a universal trend, but they help illuminate the conditions under which prolonged strategic inconclusiveness may emerge. Nuclear deterrence, technological transparency, alliance commitments, and economic interdependence may, under particular geopolitical conditions, constrain pathways toward decisive military resolution without necessarily ending conflict. As a result, such conditions may prolong the conflict while reducing the likelihood of strategic closure. »» TDHJ «« » patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedefencehorizon » donate: https://tdhj.org/about/#donation »» HOME «« » https://tdhj.org/ »» SOCIAL MEDIA «« » X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/HorizonDefence » Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedefencehorizon.org » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefencehorizonjournal/ » LinkedIn: The Defence Horizon Journal