69 AIR POWER Journal Vol. 6 No. 3, MONSOON 2011 (July-September)
THE BARRIERS TO MILITARY
TRANSFORMATION
RAJIV PURI
Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war,
not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur.
— Guilio Douhet
History is full of examples of the strongest states failing to take advantage
of significant changes of the time and transformations in military affairs.
The Mongols missed the gun-powder revolution, the Chinese and the
Indians failed to embrace the industrial revolution, while the Russians let
the information revolution go by. It is difficult to comprehend why these
societies that were among the most advanced and influential in their time,
failed to grasp the importance of these major revolutions. Certainly, they
were not ignorant of the sweeping changes taking place. Was it that they
were too confident of their position and the structures that had led them to
this position? Did they get too complacent?
It is not just militaries that suffer from a lack of will to transform. Large
business corporations fare no better. Not a single maker of sailing ships
made a successful transition to steam power. Sony, a leader in the transistor
era and inventor of the famous Walkman, is struggling to compete with
Apple’s iPod in the digital era. None of the manufacturers of mini-computers
* Wing Commander Rajiv Puri is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New
Delhi.
