Resilient Leadership Under Bani Conditions: Doctrinal Foundations and Directions for Developing Future Military Leaders

Contemporary security environments, increasingly characterized as brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible (BANI) — extending earlier VUCA frameworks — have fundamentally altered the demands placed on military leadership. Command-and-control structures, while foundational to military organization, have shown limited capacity to address the complex, ambiguous challenges that now define the operating environment. This paper investigates resilient leadership as a response to this doctrinal and institutional challenge. Drawing on NATO’s Mission Command philosophy, current Alliance competency frameworks, and recent academic literature, the paper argues that resilience — understood as the capacity to adapt, maintain effectiveness, and recover organizational function in the face of adversity and uncertainty — must be recognized as a core leadership requirement and a priority outcome of military education. The paper concludes by identifying directions through which military education programs might more systematically cultivate this capacity in future military leaders.