The Education and Training of Military Leaders for Crisis Management Environments: Perceptions of Its Suitability for Adaptive Expertise

The chapter analyses military leaders’ perceptions of the military education and training they receive for their missions. Officers are professional experts on leadership. The question of how to prepare and train leaders to meet the challenges posed by the complexity of their work environment is crucial both for their survival and the success of their mission in a crisis management context. The chapter focuses primarily on military leaders’ own experiences of how training facilitates their adaptive expertise for crisis management environments. It argues that in complex, demanding and unfamiliar situations adaptive experts can adapt their knowledge to novel situations and become accustomed to change. The results also allow us to suggest the kind of training and preparation is necessary to meet and overcome the challenges inherent in crisis management environments.