Let Me Tell You About The Birds And The Bees: Swarm Theory And Military Decision-Making – Analysis ( Source- Eurasia Review / Author- Ben Zweibelson)
Swarm of bees ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Zantastik) Source- Eurasia Review Author- Ben Zweibelson Since the 1990s, Western military organizations have demonstrated periodic interest in whether the emergent behavior of decentralized systems, commonly referred to as ‘swarm theory’ or ‘swarm behavior,’ might be relevant in military applications. Defence innovators such as the RAND Corporation sponsored multiple studies on swarm theory in the past decade and a half, and recent popular books such as The Starfish and the Spider offer tantalizing prospects on decentralized organizations for future military applications.2 Clearly, the notion of alternative organizational intelligence and decentralized problem solving has sparked the interest of military academia. Is this another techno-centric fad, or does swarm theory offer military applications superior to traditional methodologies? Can the joint military community gain anything from considering swarming constructs?