ABSTRACT
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan illuminate the enduring challenges of military adaptation in war. Military adaptation requires the ability to rapidly change equipment, organisation and methods. Discipline and hierarchies are key to the cohesion of armed forces, as are bureaucratic systems for managing logistics, personnel and administration in peace. Yet these structures inhibit flexibility and adaptation in war. This chapter explains how insurgents rapidly adapted to challenge the intervening forces and how the US and its allies struggled to adapt quickly enough to the unanticipated demands of both wars. Using these examples, it suggests some general lessons for effective military adaptation. Political and military leadership greatly assisted successful adaptation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
