Strategic Leadership

CHAPTER 3

Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking

Stephen Gerras, PhD

Technological advances alone do not constitute change. The most dramatic advances in military operations over history have been borne of ideas—ideas about warfighting, organization and doctrine. The Army’s most critical asset will not be technology; it will be critical thinking.¹

—AUSA TORCHBEARER NATIONAL SECURITY REPORT, MARCH 2005

In the post-Cold War security environment, many senior leaders in the Army and throughout the Department of Defense have asserted a need to develop better critical thinking skills.² The requirement for better critical thinkers stems from a realization that the complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity of the current environment mandates a need ...