A core group of mid-grade officers are changing the way professional discussions, doctrinal analysis, and institutional innovations take place in the Army. Like the famous interwar dialogue between Patton and Eisenhower that later found battlefield application during WWII, this group is attempting to foster a smarter, more relevant Army. Unlike those dialogues, they are using the internet and military blogging to drive change and new ideas, aligning with the culture of innovation that defense leaders hope will ensure advantage over potential future adversaries. Initially born of tactical-level information sharing on junior-officer message boards during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this movement is comprised of officers now working at the field-grade officer level—Major through Colonel—having traded tactical discussions for institutional ones.

 

‘Bridge’ to Somewhere

One fundamental aspect of this movement is its self-directed nature, with officers taking it upon themselves to foster robust discussion on Army initiatives, publications, and formal doctrine as they are released. For example, a blog run by Nate Finney, Rich Ganske, and Mikhail Grinberg, The Bridge, takes on junior to mid-grade leaders’ (and even civilian defense professionals’) perspectives on everything from the elements of national power to recent military service concepts.

The first series run by The Bridge asked a group of national security professionals to provide their theory of power and its application and started a conversation on its application in our current national security space. The discussions were collected into a compendium and have been used in professional military education courses for multiple military services. The second focused on the recently-published Army Operating Concept and invited comments from military professionals and members of the public on the merits and failures of one of the Army’s most important institutional document for developing the future force.

Discussions created by this series led to yet another series on a subsequently published document, the Human Dimension White Paper. Discussion and critiques range from the value of the “human dimension,” to the way education and talent management should be handled, and to just how the Army should be structured in the future to focus on human capital. The provision of professional forums for the airing of ideas and concepts by junior, mid-grade, and senior leaders in the national security space can only improve our military and its personnel and creates discussions between professionals once only found in personal correspondence and in-person events.