Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information ...

strategic, operational and tactical, has had <strong>the</strong>ir own objectives which
were not necessarily related. Tactical level actions have even worked
against political objectives. So, have we got back to Clausewitz’s <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong>
warfare as a continuation <strong>of</strong> politics? This <strong>the</strong>oretical paper clarifies <strong>the</strong>
strategic communication concept and its relation to o<strong>the</strong>r similar terms
and connection to <strong>the</strong> international politics.
Keywords: perception management, strategic communication, communication
strategy, Clausewitz, international politics
What Does <strong>the</strong> Concept <strong>of</strong> “Ambidexterity” Mean in
<strong>the</strong> Current Military Planning Process?
Aki-Mauri Huhtinen
Finnish National Defence University, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: How do organizations survive in <strong>the</strong> face <strong>of</strong> change? This is a key
question for Western military organizations after <strong>the</strong> Iraq War and its consequences.
All human crises are manmade because <strong>of</strong> we are human beings.
The spreading <strong>of</strong> individual risk also increases systemic risk. The root
cause <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> problem is what has been termed “rational irrationality” –
behavior that, on <strong>the</strong> individual level, is perfectly reasonable but that,
when aggregated in a complex system, produces calamity (Alpaslan &
Mitr<strong>of</strong>f 2010, xvii). From <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> organizational adaptation and
learning, March (1991) argues that a significant number <strong>of</strong> competencies
needs to be learnt and unlearnt during each and every process <strong>of</strong> change.
According to Birkinshaw and Gibson (2011, 2004), in many sports, ambidexterity
is a competitive advantage. Footballers are encouraged to use
both left and right foot; left-handed batsmen have a slight advantage
against right handed bowlers; <strong>the</strong> southpaw boxer presents a rarely encountered
challenge to a boxer with an orthodox stance; some ambidextrous
tennis players even use both hands, separately, to play strokes during
a rally. And while some individuals are naturally two-handed or tw<strong>of</strong>ooted,
many work hard to gain an advantage by practising until <strong>the</strong>y master
ambidexterity. The challenge for public security and safety organizations
is that with terrorism and changes brought on by cyber-security <strong>the</strong>y
are faced with <strong>the</strong>ir greatest challenge since <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> World War Two.
Not only are <strong>the</strong> structures and operating procedures undergoing change
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