The Impact of Technological Innovation

This chapter discusses how technological innovation and the post-Cold War international system may impact the character of sea power. Innovative uses of existing scientific and technological knowledge are merged with new discoveries. Science and technology are essentially two sides of the same coin; the technological innovation that this paper concerns itself with is predicated on scientific innovation. Technological innovation is an important component of military success. Military leaders tend to be conservative in nature; and it is true that military organizations once resisted the introduction of untested new weapons. During the Cold War the Russians became convinced that this shift represented a fundamental transformation in the nature of warfare; a shift they referred to as a "military-technical revolution." As military organizations have become more dependent upon high technology equipment we can identify a trend toward smaller, though increasingly potent, force structures.