Single Loop Thinking: Non-Reflective Military Cycles of ENDS and MEANS

This is a section out of a recent writing project that will appear in Medium in three parts. This first part explains ‘single-loop thinking’ which is non-reflective, and largely indicative of what most modern military decision-making has operators do. We are taught a process to follow, we then attempt to follow it in all security applications… we are evaluated and trained on how compliant we are at holding to the process and executing activities explicitly through said process; and when our organization is surprised (failure, defeat…