The subject of strategic leadership has had a spectacular development in the world of business management, where much literature has been published to explain its scope, forms of operation and its relationship with strategic planning and the decision-making process. All this information, which would ensure the success of a company, has been an extremely useful reference for the field of defense and security, even though everything written is not exactly applicable to the strategic scenario in which we operate. Indeed, the specificities of the political office, of the Armed Forces and of the type of conflict this sector is involved in, make it necessary to redefine the essential aspects of strategic leadership in the field we are concerned with.
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More than two decades after Oliver North's role in the Iran-Contra affair exploded into public view as part of one of the most important political scandals in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century, the imbroglio continues to offer critical insights into contemporary debates about foreign policy mechanisms and the role of the military. North's responsibility as an individual, combined with certain institutional enablers that flourished within the Reagan Administration's conduct of foreign policy, resulted in an inexorable bifurcation between the traditional ethos of the U.S. armed forces and the foreign policy aims and practices of a conservative administration, despite their sometimes conflation in the popular mind. This paper will explore the tensions between institutional versus political conservatism, as well as those institutional practices, that facilitated North's shift away from the instincts and training of the military sphere to that of a lone-wolf activism.
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Throughout the last decades, the armies of the European countries have evolved in a non-concerted but convergent way, developing common characteristics among which the growing integration of women, both in the troop class and in the officer ranks, stands out. This work makes a comparative exercise of the different national cases, establishing as basic elements of analysis the antecedents of the presence of women in the Army, the normative evolution that has protected and governed their incorporation to the ranks, their specific quantitative and qualitative dimensions in the armies, the diverse modalities of access to the academies, the possible limitations in the professional career, and the level of evolution of certain social policies that favor the professional development and the family norms.
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The article reviews the commitments undertaken by NATO, from an institutional and operational point of view, to ensure awareness and dissemination of its mandates, especially in the field of crisis management. Secondly, it examines the EU's actions in promoting and defending the rights of women and girls living in conflict situations in all areas of its policies, including the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Finally, the article considers the progressive extension of the gender perspective to the three dimensions of the OSCE: the politico-military, the economic-environmental and the human dimension. The essay concludes by offering a balance of the achievements of these institutions in recent years, as well as the pending challenges to continue the correct implementation of Resolution 1325 in all peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities.
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The objective of this research is to answer the question: How much progress have South American countries made in the implementation of equal opportunity policies within the Armed Forces? To this end, the study was approached from the perspective of gender equity, reviewing the state of the question through the increase in the incorporation of women into military institutions in the region. However, a historical-quantitative analysis is insufficient for this approach. For this purpose, it was complemented with a qualitative analysis that allows us to analyze specific public policies applied in this field to generate equal opportunities and to visualize the situation of women within military institutions in South America. Finally, it is necessary to clarify that the field of study of the South American countries chosen excludes Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana because it is understood that their cultural and historical identification with the region has been scarce or even nonexistent if we approach it from the specific field of defense.
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This essay explores the more than 230-year-long development of the military justice system of the United States, a process that began even before the country's constitution was written. It examines the contributions to the jurisprudence of other countries made by the justice system of the U.S. armed forces and looks at some of the most important controversies accompanying its development. It also presents some of the contemporary issues facing both the U.S. military and civil society in the early 21st century, as the United States conducts actions against hostile non-state actors who threaten both the security and human rights of democracies around the world.
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Military forces in Latin America are being called upon by governments and society to contribute to the fight against non-state armed actors such as criminal gangs, drug traffickers and terrorists. In order to accomplish this task, there is the possibility of actions within the framework of human rights and international humanitarian law. If the armed groups faced by governments meet certain objective characteristics and there is political will, the application of international humanitarian law is viable, as Colombia has demonstrated; the norm is legitimate and facilitates the neutralization and dismantling of the threat.
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