Procesos de cambio militar en el Ejército de Tierra españo

Résumé

Armies are often defined as rigid and resistant to change. However, there are complex transformations within the military organization to confront future challenges. The main objective of the PhD Thesis is to study military change processes in the Spanish Army. The research analyzes drivers of change, interrelation of theoretical paradigms and the relevance of cultural factors to military change. The dissertation is composed by 5 articles published in scientific journals. By using a process approach, the research studies the applicability of theories and identifies methodological needs in Military Innovation in Spanish Army during the Moroccan War (1921-1927). Three additional articles are developed after conducting 24 interviews with members of the elite unit Spanish Legion and the Training and Doctrine Command. Building military expeditionary culture: Spanish Army after international operations analyzes the experience of Spanish Army in operations between 1991 and 2021. The vision of operational scenarios and functions performed contributed to identify professionalization and operational experience as main sources of military change in Spain. The dissertation focuses in a specific type of mission as Security Force Assistance Operations (SFA), selecting as case study the experience in Iraq training regular forces. The article The Spanish Army in Security Force Assistance: Lessons Learned from Iraq describes the main SFA deployments, identifying as key elements force protection and cultural interactions with local personnel. Due to these results, Cultural Awareness in Security Force Assistance: The Spanish Army in Iraq (2015-2020) studies cultural interactions between Spanish trainers and Iraqi recruits. The results identify cultural awareness as a key point for deployments as well as the need to include informal learning in the institutional lessons learned system. The testimonies of interviewees and the personal experience of the researcher in a conceptual planning process allowed to understand change processes in Spanish Army. The last article reflects the cross-sectional relevance of social and organizational culture. The results leads to propose an explicative model of military change in Spain, showing multilevel changes and feedback process. Conclusions answer the general research questions, including future research and policy recommendations to Spanish Army.