Supply Chain Resilience – An Empirical Exploration of Barriers and Enablers in Military Settings

In the post-Cold War period, many Western countries reduced their military budgets, shifting their focus from territorial defence to expeditionary operations. For these armed forces, the transformation brought with it an increasing dependence on lean commercial supply chains, vulnerable to disruption. Today, the geopolitical landscape is changing; the established rules-based international order is no longer secure. Western nations are uniformly increasing their military expenditure to refocus on territorial defence. But this return to an earlier posture does not mean that Cold War solutions are adequate for addressing contemporary issues in defence supply chain resilience (SCRES). Previous research has primarily studied SCRES in commercial settings. This paper empirically explores barriers and enablers regarding the enhancement of SCRES in military settings. The paper identifies three sets of barriers; these are related to the ongoing transformation, to governance, and to the defence marketplace. Regarding the marketplace, the paper demonstrates that military supply chains largely face the same barriers as their commercial counterparts; barriers related to the transformation and governance are specific to military settings, however. Regarding enablers, the paper finds that these are largely similar those found in commercial settings. However, there also specific enablers. This is related to the fact that the study focused on NATO members. This means that discussions regarding enablers include multinational solutions and country-specializations. The paper also shows that, currently, large, medium-sized and small countries all face the same barriers and enablers when trying to enhance defence SCRES.