Project started: 2022
PhD Fellow
Disruptive Innovation Through Military Design
Thomas Slensvik is a lecturer and officer at the Norwegian Defence University College and a PhD fellow at AHO who researches how SOD might help military operations understand and interact with complex situations in a UN framework.
Through his PhD-study, Thomas aims to improve his understanding of and introduce alternatives within military operational planning. Military planning in western countries is dominated by a monolithic understanding of planning as one methodology to solve everything, described in its current doctrines. Therefore, by studying the premiss for current planning methodology and comparing this with designerly ways of thinking as an alternative to current doctrine, this project can help build understanding around both current and alternative ways of planning and introduce more inclusive and better methods of handling complexity. The method is based on Research through design (RtD) and builds upon a mix of theoretical studies and action research from smaller to bigger venues. UN Operations are considered the most complex of military operations; therefore, this will be studied as the highest venue of complexity. The study uses Systems Oriented Design, developed within a practical profession, using creative, disruptive and innovative thinking focusing on reflexivity, iterative and inclusive methodology.