An Abstract Approach. Rational Non-Sense To Replace Historical Nonsense in Educating Leaders

Kerttunen, Mika

doi:10.1515/jms-2016-0180

Abstract

This research questions the value of empiricism and historical case studies in higher level officer education. It will instead emphasize the need and importance of a rationalist approach to knowledge. It will outline a tentative example of an abstract approach to case studies. By doing this the author seeks to enhance the education of abstract thinking - an art that is required from joint level and general staff officers.

References

Allison, G. & Zelikow, P. 1999. The Essence of Decision. Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Pearson Longman. First edition by Graham Allison 1971. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Anderson, R. C. 1977. "The notion of schemata and the educational enterprise: General discussion of the conference". (In Anderson, R. C., Spiro, R. J. and Montague, W. E (eds). Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Beaufre, A. 1965.Introduction to strategy. New York: Faber and Faber.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Blackburn, S. 2008. Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Boehrer J. & Linsky, M. 1990. “Teaching with cases: Learning to question.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning (1990) p. 41-57. von Clausewitz, C. von 1991, orig. 1832. Vom Kriege. Bonn: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag.10.1002/tl.37219904206
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cohnizt, D. & Häggqvist, S. 2009. “The Role of Intuitions in Philosophy”. (In Cohnizt, D. and Häggqvist, S. (eds.), The Role of Intuitions in Philosophical Methodology, Studia Philosophica Estonica, 2.2. (2009), p. 1-14).10.12697/spe.2009.2.2.01
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cloake, J. 1985. Templer - Tiger of Malaya. London: Harrap.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Cloud, D. & Jaffe, G. 2009. The Fourth Star. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Echevarria, Antulio J. 2009. Clausewitz and Contemporary War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. 2011. A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Continuum Books.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Department of Army 2006. FM 6-22. Army Leadership. Competent, Competent, and Agile (October 2006).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Department of Army 2006. FM 6-24. Counterinsurgency (December 2006).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
The Guardian, April 9, 2011. ”New documents reveal cover-up of 1948 British 'massacre' of villagers in Malaya”.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Houghton, D. P. 2000. “Essence of Excision: A Critique of the New Version of Essence of Decision”, Security Studies 10: 1 (2000), p. 151-178.10.1080/09636410008429424
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Katagiri, N. 2011. “Winning hearts and minds to lose control: exploring various consequences of popular support in counterinsurgency missions”, Small Wars & Insurgencies 22:1 (March 2011), p. 178-187.10.1080/09592318.2011.546610
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Markie, P. 2008. "Rationalism vs. Empiricism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition). Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/rationalism-empiricism/.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
[The British] National Army Museum, The Malayan Emergency, http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/malayan-emergency.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Paret, P. 1989. “The Genesis of War” in Carl von Clausewitz, On War. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Patton, P. 2010. Deleuzean Concepts. Philosophy, Colonization, Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Porch, D. 2011. “The dangerous myths and dubious promise of COIN”, Small Wars & Insurgencies 22:2 (May 2011), p. 241, 252-253.10.1080/09592318.2011.574490
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Porter, P. 2009. Military Orientalism. Eastern War through Western Eyes. London: Hurst & Company.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tilman, R.O. 1966. “The Non-Lessons of the Malayan Emergency, Asian Survey 6:8 (1966). Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/2642468 (accessed 22.9.2009).10.1525/as.1966.6.8.01p01954
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Skinner, Q. 2002. “Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas”. (Republished in Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics. Volume I. Regarding Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stake, R. E. 1995. The art of case study research. Sage: Thousand Oaks.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sting 1987. “History will teach us nothing”, Nothing like the sun. Los Angeles: A&M Records.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Strange, J. & Iron, R., “Understanding Centers of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities”, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/cog1.pdf.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sumida, J. T. 2008. Decoding Clausewitz. A New Approach to On War. Lawrence: University of Kansas.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sunderland, R. 1964. “Winning the Hearts and Minds of the People: Malaya 1948-60”, Rand Memorandum RM-4174-ISA, September 1964.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Van Buren, P. 2011. We Meant Well. How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ward, I. & Miraflor, N. 2009. Slaughter and Deception at Batang Kali. Singapore: Media Masters.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Yin, R. K. 1994. Case Study Research. Design and Methods. Sage: Thousand Oaks.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

An Abstract Approach. Rational Non-Sense To Replace Historical Nonsense in Educating Leaders

Abstract

Paradigm

My account