Тhe importance of organizational learning and knowledge transfer for efficient defense and security system

The vast sociopolitical and cultural changes that swept Europe in the eighteenth century revolutionized the way knowledge was perceived in many fields of society. The new scientific discoveries found such practical use in creating new tools for war that significantly reshaped the western understanding and appreciation of knowledge as essential for the power of the state. Since the early nineteen century most practitioners of war have realized that the war is not a game of chance, but involve a good deal of knowledge, learning and practice. The security system of any country must be observed as a living organism that needs constant adaptation to the ever changing operational environment. The practice shows that countries that tend to develop inert defence without capacities to adapt to rapid changes in the environment, one day may fail to survive such changes. Necessary for survival of a country is that its security and defence system continuously learn and develop. The existence of an organizational learning and studying of the past conflicts and understanding the operational environment through analysing subjective, not just objective patterns, is crucial for producing practical solutions in the area of defence which is vital to the state. The modern warfare and contemporary asymmetric threats made the planning, preparing and execution of security operations on all levels one of the most complex and most difficult human activities. It takes a lot of learning, obtaining and processing of information to be able to cope with the challenges of contemporary security threats. Although the security and defence system of a country usually learns best from its own mistakes, it is better to rely on learning from other's mistakes. The power of obtaining knowledge in certain organization is heavily influenced from its organizational culture, and in the context of organizational learning in the defence, the words of Sir Basil Liddell Hart were not far from the truth: “The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out.” 127 Thus, knowledge can be particularly useful if the practitioners develop a critical mindset as a base for thinking, through applying the multidisciplinary approach in learning and understanding the causality of actions and events in the international politics. It is obvious that the strongest defence systems of some countries in the world are successful because they pay far more attention to study the past experiences, wars and campaigns. Without a critical analysis of the knowledge of the past, one cannot make a reliable and realistic assessment for future threats and conflicts in order to make necessary preparations to build up the defence capabilities. The military forces of any country have the biggest potential to provide security. Those militaries that practice war more often are better at it. Dealing with any threat more often contributes to achieving a better understanding and improves the readiness for the next move. Therefore, the country security and defence elements not just learn continually, but also do not create generational gaps of knowledge. Only in real crisis the personnel, equipment and doctrine are put to a test. As a result of such practical application of knowledge, their quality is confirmed, adjusted or changed