Economics, Logistics, and (Human Resources) Management in Military Sciences

Abstract

AbstractThis chapters aims to introduce the section on economics, logistics, and (human resources) management in military sciences. The military is best known for its successes, or the lack thereof, on the battlefield. In this context, topics such as tactics, military leadership, and command and emotions like courage and persistence are often studied. Less well familiar is the idea that military success and defeat are highly dependent on the way the military organization has been structured, prepared, trained, and equipped before the real action starts. Similarly, it is underestimated how much military performance depends on financial means, logistics, and human resources during the action. The idea that economics, logistics, personnel policies, and management are only relevant in peacetime conditions is simply wrong. This chapter uses historical examples and insights from current management theory and research to make this clear, and, at the same time, introduces which topics will be reviewed in the other chapters of the section on management, economics and logistics. These issues play at the national level but certainly also in the international arena where the different allies and competitors meet.