Citation
McCann, Leo. 'Killing Is our Business and Business Is Good': The Evolution of 'War Managerialism' from Body Counts to Counterinsurgency
. Organization Vol 24, no. 4 (2017): 491-515. DOI: 10.1177/1350508417693852.
Findings
The business management style of war logistics that appeared during World War II and persisted through the Vietnam war era is integral to the identity of the American military industrial complex. The management style focuses on performance measurement, management accounting and quality improvement metrics. War managerialism is highly prevalent ideologically even though it has important limitations in practice. With focus on metrics of progress, tactics and operations, it neglects broader strategic, political and ethical issues. In Vietnam, war managerialism took the form of a façade of clear progress against objectives communicated to the public, media and Congress. Specifically, McNamara's management speak emphasized body counts, percentage of population secured, weapons seized, areas 'cleared' of insurgents and declines in incidents of terrorism. In many ways, the ideology was disconnected from reality on the ground. Despite the shortcomings of war managerialism, quantitative systems analysis still retained a central role in Afghanistan and Iraq as evident in the indispensability of Big Data, statistics, and attempts to make the U.S. military even more scientific in approach to these conflicts. COIN, which the author argues has become the central ideology in these conflicts, thus has the mangerialist obsession with metrics of progress. The risk is not only the oversimplification of conflict complexity that affects outcomes, but also the normalization of wars as a scientific enterprise. War managerialism's role in counterinsurgency does not offer positive contribution that would help with conflict termination.
Tags
Lever of Power: Information Method: Qualitative Geoscope: Multiple countries UN Region: Southeastern Asia UN Region: Southern Asia UN Region: Western Asia DOD Region: CENTCOM DOD Region: INDOPACOM Country: Afghanistan Country: Iraq Country: Vietnam Actor: State Target: General Population Target: Military Type: Article Year: 2017
Research Background
- Research questions
- How has "war managerialism" evolved in the context of the United States, in what context has it been measured in over time, and how does it impact warfare? (inferred)
- Hypotheses
- War managerialism's role in counterinsurgency is unlikely to help terminate conflicts.
Variables or Concepts
- Independent variables & concepts
- War managerialism
- Dependent variables & concepts
- Conflict termination
Methodologies
- Qualitative method description
- Case studies of managerialism in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq based on historical sources