Leadership in the defense and security sector in the 21st century

Deadline for submission of full-text articles: 20 January 2022

Planned publication: Winter 2022 issue of Connections: The Quarterly Journal

Special issue editors: Prof. Philipp Fluri, Founder and former Deputy Director of DCAF, currently guest professor at WenZao University, Taiwan, Tamar Pataraia, Board member, Board, Civil Council on Defence and Security, Georgia, and Prof. Todor Tagarev, Centre for Security and Defense Management, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill that is teachable and learnable to a degree. As such, it encompasses the ability of an individual, group, or organization to “lead.” This special issue will be dedicated to what leadership means in theory and practice in the age of hybrid and IT-based warfare. It will also address the question of how Eastern (e.g., Russian and Chinese) and Western (within the NATO Alliance) approaches to leadership differ. A special aspect is the leadership in organizations that have been termed ‘terrorist.’

Connections: The Quarterly Journal welcomes contributions on the following questions:

  • Leadership and the wars of today and tomorrow (cyber, hybrid, robot-/ drone-/, AI-based, etc.)
  • Differences of leadership notions within NATO member countries
  • Russian models of leadership
  • Chinese models of leadership
  • Leadership in ‘terrorist’ organizations
  • Leadership and ideology/world view
  • Leadership and strategic communications

Of particular interest will be contributions on leadership on reforms and innovation of the defense and security sector that present a critical analysis of the experience and the role of political and military leadership in implementing effectively (or not) approaches, concepts, and tools like “down/rightsizing,” “defense transformation,” “network-centric warfare/ network-based operations/ network enabled capabilities,” “concept development and experimentation,” PPBS, “capabilities-based planning,” with the purpose to draw lessons of use to the new generation of defense leaders.

These lists of topics are not exclusive. High-quality contributions on related subjects will also be considered for publication in this special issue.

Interested authors are invited to submit their original texts through our Submissions Management System.

Articles should be approximately 4-5,000 words. Please acquaint yourself with the journal guidelines and follow the Chicago Manual of Style, particularly in referencing your sources using footnotes, and use the template below to prepare your manuscript.

We will inform you on the results of the peer review process as soon as they are available. Typically, the review takes four to six weeks.

Connections: Quarterly Journal is indexed by Scopus, JSTOR, EBSCO databases, CrossRef, Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO), the International Relations and Security Network (ISN), ProQuest, Questia, and the Directory of open access scholarly resources (ROAD).

Call announced: 
31.08.2021
Submission Deadline: 
20.01.2022