Introduction
Michael Raska notes that there have been five major waves of military innovation –that is, Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMAs) – since the late 1980s. These are: first, the initial theorizing and development of the concept of a Military-Technical Revolution (MTR) in the Soviet Union, based on “reconnaissance-strike complexes” (1980s); second, the study and refinement of MTR concepts by the U.S. military (early 1990s); third, the development of the Information Technologies-led RMA (IT-RMA) in the U.S. military (mid-to-late-1990s); fourth, limited implementation of the IT-RMA under the guise of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s “defense transformation” efforts (early 2000s); and, fifth, a growing questioning of the overall RMA concept (mid-2000s onward).1
