New Article: Bick, The Evolution of Civic Service in Israel

Bick, Etta. “Institutional Layering, Displacement, and Policy Change: The Evolution of Civic Service in Israel.” Public Policy and Administration (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076715624272

 

Abstract

This study explores the process of endogenous institutional change. It utilizes the concepts policy layering and displacement to explain gradual but yet significant and cumulative institutional change that has taken place in civic national service policy in Israel. Layering was an expedient strategy of change given the highly charged politics surrounding national service and the opposition of ultra-orthodox and Israel’s Arab citizens to any form of service. While the government and administrative agencies were the primary agents of change, we will also take note of the important and contentious role of Israel’s High Court of Justice which served as a catalyst to policy change, compelling the government to end policy drift. However, it is important to note that judicial intervention may also derail gradual reform as will be shown in the Israeli case.

 

 

 

New Article: Marcus, Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel–Hizballah Conflict

Marcus, Raphael D. “Military Innovation and Tactical Adaptation in the Israel–Hizballah Conflict: The Institutionalization of Lesson-Learning in the IDF.” Journal of Strategic Studies 38.4 (2015): 500-28.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402390.2014.923767

 

Abstract

This article highlights a pattern of military adaptation and tactical problem-solving utilized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while engaged in protracted conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hizballah. It discusses the IDF’s recent attempts to institutionalize their historically intuitive process of ad-hoc learning by developing a formal tactical-level mechanism for ‘knowledge management’. The diffusion of this battlefield lesson-learning system that originated at lower-levels of the organization is examined, as well as its implementation and effectiveness during the 2006 Lebanon War. A nuanced analysis of IDF adaptation illustrates the dynamic interplay between both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ processes of military innovation.