Innovation in Military Organizations
This MIT graduate seminar examines why militaries innovate, using historical cases such as the development of carrier aviation, blitzkrieg tactics, and nuclear strategy to test theories from organizational studies. Students read case histories alongside organization theory literature, then evaluate whether hypotheses developed for civilian bureaucracies and firms hold up when applied to armies, navies, and air forces. The course treats military innovation as a three-part inquiry: identifying causes in specific historical episodes, building general propositions about how innovation happens inside military bureaucracies, and using those cases to stress-test broader organizational theory. Materials include a syllabus, weekly reading assignments, and discussion questions from MIT's OpenCourseWare archive. No video lectures are included, and there is no certificate; the course is meant for independent study of the readings and seminar structure rather than guided instruction.