Book Review | The Art of Military Innovation

Wars are won by soldiers, yes. But often, they’re also won or lost by ideas.

I wouldn’t call myself a military buff, but the military history has always had its grip on me. I have appreciated the literature that highlights the ingenuity that emerges in moments of desperation. I read plenty on World War I and II, and more recently, a lot of geopolitical writing. The Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the Israeli Defense Forces felt like a natural next step.

It’s the first book I’ve read that goes so deep into how the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) evolved into an innovation engine. It also dissects the crucial question of how a small country like Israel sustains this cycle of readiness and creativity.

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About the Authors

Edward Luttwak is a name well-known in military circles. A strategist and historian, he’s authored eight books, including Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (1987). He even volunteered with the IDF during the Six-Day War in 1967. His perspective blends academic rigor with lived experience.

His co-author is Eitan Shamir, a professor at Bar-Ilan University. But Shamir is more than an academic. He previously headed the National Security Doctrine Department in Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office.

Between them, they bring both theory and policy experience. In short, if anyone can write about IDF innovation, it’s these two.

The Book’s Architecture

I read the 2023 Harvard University Press hardcover. It runs to 281 pages, with a rich bibliography.

The book has 16 chapters, moving in chronological order. It starts with the chaotic birth of the IDF in 1948 and then works through its wars, its doctrines, its weapons and its elite units.

Along the way, it covers themes like “how scarcity forces innovation,” the idea of Israel as a “reserve army of innovators,” and deep dives into platforms like the Merkava tank or the Iron Dome missile defense.

For anyone who enjoys structure: yes, it’s orderly. But it’s also layered, each chapter building on the last.

The Innovation Machine

Shortly after its independence in 1948, Israel was thrown into an existential crisis when the neighboring Arab countries launched an attack on it. Thus, the IDF was born – in chaos and disorder. Initially, it was a patchwork of militias, short on weapons and organization.

But scarcity turned out to be its greatest advantage. Out of necessity came improvisation and from improvisation came innovation.

The authors describe the IDF’s evolution from tinkerers to macro-innovators. Israel’s defense industry learned to think big – to build systems that leap ahead rather than crawl forward.

The Iron Dome, for example, was conceived in 2005, prototyped even before official funding and combat-ready by 2011. Compare that to India’s Tejas fighter project, still meandering, four decades after inception. The contrast speaks volumes about intent and urgency.

It’s clear that Israelis induct first and adapt later . My sincere hope is that India adapts the agile Israeli ‘deploy-and-iterate’ development model rather than getting mired in debilitating bureaucracy and exhaustive testing.

Another key idea is institutional unity. Unlike most militaries divided by branches, the IDF functions as one integrated force. That lack of bureaucratic silos fosters faster decisions and shared innovation.

Unit 8200 IDF - The Art of Military Innovation

Perhaps most striking is the IDF’s culture of trust and decentralization. In the Israeli military, creativity outranks experience. Commanders in their twenties routinely take independent decisions in the field. During the 1950s and 60s, many senior commanders were in their thirties. They were young enough to take risks and old enough to execute them.

The book recounts how Dan Tolkowsky and Ezer Weizman, both from the IDF’s Air Corps, persuaded Dassault Aviation to modify the Mirage III into the world’s first multi-role jet fighter – it turned out to be a move that later influenced American designs like the F-4 Phantom and the F-16.

Ecosystem Thinking

What sets Israel apart is the tight entwinement between its military, academia and industry. Agencies like Maf’at – a joint administrative body linking the Ministry of Defense and the IDF – ensure constant collaboration with companies such as Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems.

Then there’s the reservist factor. In Israel, reserve duty isn’t an afterthought. It’s the backbone. CEOs, engineers, professors all rotate back into uniform. The same people who design a system might one day use it in combat. That creates genuine skin in the game and eliminates the complacency that plagues many defense setups.

Israel’s innovation isn’t just about hardware. It’s largely about systems. Take the IDF’s Unit 8200 – its elite cyber and intelligence arm. It doesn’t accept volunteers. Instead, it handpicks top students directly from high school. Authors note that serving in Unit 8200 is like attending an accelerated startup bootcamp. Many alumni later form the core of Israel’s tech ecosystem.

And of course, we can’t forget women. Out of necessity, women were fully integrated into the IDF. Authors write that there are mixed battalions in the IDF where women form the majority. Many instructors are women. According to a Times of Israel article, one in five Israeli combat soldiers is female.

Instructors, combat officers, border guards – the walls came down not out of ideology, but because Israel needed every capable hand.

Wars Spurred Innovation

Luttwak and Shamir detail how lessons from the battlefield translate into Israel’s civilian innovation. Risk-taking, speed, and feedback loops are cultural constants.

In 1967, Israel’s Operation Moked destroyed over 400 Arab aircrafts in six days. It was a stunning demonstration of speed and surprise. But the Yom Kippur War in 1973 reversed the script. Soviet-supplied Surface-to-Air missiles devastated the Israeli Air Force.

The Yom Kippur war was a debacle. But the IDF did not wallow. As the authors stress time and again, Israel thrives on feedback. After 1973, lessons were brutally absorbed and by 1982, the IDF was the first in the world to deploy remotely piloted vehicles in combat. That turnaround captures the IDF mindset: act, fail fast and rebuild stronger.

Scarcity has always been the mother of innovation for Israel. Their armored corps began with junked tanks, retooled and refitted.

Merkava MK 4M Windbreaker MBT - The Art of Military Innovation — Merkava (*Mk 4M*) Windbreaker equipped with Trophy APS

Out of that same ethos emerged the Merkava tank, the Trophy Active Protection System, the Iron Dome and the Talpiot program – an elite track for gifted students combining military training with scientific education.

Again, academia, industry, and the military as one tight ecosystem.

The bigger picture? Israel systematized what we in India call jugaad. Quick, clever fixes born of scarcity. Except they scaled it, institutionalized it and tied it to feedback loops. That’s the difference!

My Verdict

The Art of Military Innovation isn’t bedtime reading. It is dense, detailed and at times deeply technical. But if you’re serious about understanding how armies think, how innovation thrives under pressure, and how culture shapes technology, this is unputdownable.

For me, this book also stands out because it doesn’t just glorify Israel, it decodes the conditions that make innovation possible: scarcity, youth and feedback, in the case of IDF.