Military organizations are normally quite resistant to change the way they operate. As Eliot A. Cohen and John Gooch note in 'Military Misfortunes,' militaries have failed on occasion to anticipate, learn, and adapt to changes in the nature of warfare. This failure has usually led to defeat on the battlefield. Currently, the U.S. Army faces the daunting task of adjusting its organizational and doctrinal foundation to meet the demands of the post-Cold War world. In order to meet this challenge, senior leaders must win support for their efforts from the people and the nation's political leaders. Moreover, the Army's leadership must also compel those within the institution to alter the way they think about their traditional roles and branch missions. This monograph examines several external and internal factors that influence innovation as they apply to military organizations in general and to the development of the American antiaircraft artillery establishment between World War I and World War I1 specifically. A child of World War I, the antiaircraft artillery fought against external and internal post-war pressures to emerge as an accepted member of the family of arms by 1941. The emergence of the antiaircraft artillery during this period represented a shift within its parent branch, the Coast Artillery Corps, away from the traditional mission of seacoast defense. Over the course of this shift, the antiaircraft artillery fought against not only the purveyors of the status quo in the seacoast artillery who sought to shield their organization from technical and political obsolescence, but also the other combat arms within the Army, in particular the Air Corps, which disagreed with the Coast Artillery over the need for antiaircraft artillery. For these reasons, the history of the antiaircraft artillery is an excellent vehicle through which to examine the phenomenon of military innovation. One of the benefits of the study of history is that it informs contemporary conceptual thought. While the similarities between the Interwar period and today are not exactly parallel, they are nonetheless asymptotic. From 1919-1941, the nation abjured international involvement, endured widespread economic turmoil and curbed defense spending. Some of the same trends currently exist and influence the ability of the U.S. Army's senior leadership to adapt today's force to the exigencies of future war. By analyzing the theoretical structure of military innovation as well as the external and internal factors that affect modernization in the military, this monograph offers today's leaders a historical perspective on the dynamics of change in military organizations.

ADA 300755 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)