A RESEARCH QUARTERLY IN MILITARY MANAGEMENT
Year:2011 | Volume:11 | Issue:42|Papers Count:7

Islam is a comprehensive and accommodating religion which has proposed practical codes, means and objective plans in all arenas of man’s life. One of the arenas receiving prime focus in the holy Quran refers to issue of command and leading forces in the fields of defense and military. Following a relatively long period of declining shining period of early Islamic ruling system and the caliphs, Imam Khomeini as an Islamic leader rose sun-like from the east and raised again the Islamic Shia’s flag all over the world. The revolutionary movement led by imam Khomeini is significant in that he as a high-ranking Shia authority (Marja), while leading and commanding the armed forces as the commander-in- chief, practically institutionalized the capability and authority of a religious leader in the management of great ruling and military affairs, and provided the man with an objective and positive answer to the question that religion can manage people’s politico-military affairs”. To this end, this study has addressed “strategic, tactical and operational” dimensions of the late and elite leader’s command during the eight-year imposed war by Iraq on Iran, as a model for all military leaders and commanders in the Islamic system.

Nowadays nature of war has changed into information war in which information superiority plays a vital role. As a result, the main aim of military commanders and planners is to exercise superiority of command and control in information systems and computer and communication networks, which is called C4I. What makes C4I effective is the “cohesion” among its components in the light of “unity of efforts” which has resulted in a new system called C5I2. In a bid to offer a comprehensive concept of C5I2, this article addresses the role of computer, its necessities and also threats emanating from its application. As an applied and descriptive study, this article was developed employing library, internet and professional URLs. It could then be concluded that “all communication systems, automatic information and the equipment contributing to commander in planning, guiding and controlling forces in line with unity of efforts” are called C5I2. Any successful command and control efforts lie in their connection to computer systems capable of mass data processing as quickly and accurately as possible. That is why in major wars such as the Persian Gulf one control and command system played the major role. Application of IT specially computers in C5I2 infiltrates into the information systems of the enemy, which justifies further attention to the issues like security and customization in C5I2 and proposes a comprehensive customized architecture for the army of the I.R. of Iran.

Information plays a key role in the successful performance of organizations; especially it enables their management to make decision on wider scopes of functions. Since the Air Force of the I.R. of Iran is characterized by multiple functions, staff members and professions and accommodates wider geographical borderlines, collection of large amount of valid, accurate, transparent and relevant data which needs sorting, processing, analysis and retrieval, depends on applying comprehensive and strategic approach to IT. Deputy of the Air Force in Educational affairs, heading for education management and policy making for the affiliated institutes (i.e. aviation university, aviation training center and nursing institute, etc.) is responsible to implement various training processes including designing, planning, organizing, implementing and evaluating (materials preparation, syllabus design, teaching methods and facilities, educational counseling and any supplementary activities) that all make strategic IT inevitable.Aimed at understanding the status quo of IT in the Education Deputy of the Air Force and identifying the effective factors in a strategic planning along with an IT strategic plan, this study was conducted thereby an IT strategic plan model was suggested for the Education Deputy. The study was descriptive- survey in nature for which the participants were 150 respective managers and exports from stratified randomly selected from the Education Deputy, Aviation command, strategic Research Office, Aviation University and Aviation Training Center. To collect data, a researcher-made and validated 33- item questionnaire was employed. The data was analyzed using SPSS and LISREL program. To this end, t-test, F-value and multi-variate regression analyses were run. The findings explored the target status quo; thereby a sound model for IT strategic plan was suggested for the Education Deputy.

Futurology is a new notion which has not been thoroughly conceptualized and the related literature is not rich enough. Any concept is built in the course of its particular history by facing the insuring challenges and affairs. To address any concept, understanding the respective challenges seems to be significant. Futurology has been originated from the incapability of the concept of forecasting knowledge, policy making knowledge and knowledge of strategic management in addressing particular challenges that is why the identification of the challenges contributing to this conceptualization seems necessary. This article, focusing on the historical development of the notion of futurology, addresses the failures in forecasting to answer the upcoming questions; thereby the concept of futurology is also treated. The article, of course, revolves around the notion from organizational and national perspectives. As a conclusion, the article suggests a joint approach to employing these concepts in the process of futurology policy-making in organizations.

Given the complexities, dimensions, number of the effective variables and the effect of information warfare, architecting this field aimed at reducing the complexities and enhancing the capability of applying this notion, can be very effective to this end.One of the main areas of implementing organizational architecture projects is preliminary planning, selecting framework and methodology and developing project implementation plan. To this end, and thereby, first a review of literature is conducted then a respective operational model of information warfare is suggested.Information warfare architectural plan accommodates empowerment in information warfare suggested framework and methodology, and procedures are followed then.Last, a macro plan for the implementation is suggested along with its respective model whose dimensions are elaborated. The last part is followed by an evaluation of the plan and the conclusion.

As the greatest epic and national work composed by Firdausi, Shahnameh covers major parts of the affair and social life of the traditional Iranian ethnics. Epic mainly refers to wars and bravery of the past tribes. Explanations of wars in Shahnameh are interwoven with fictions such that they have changed into extraordinary and legendary picture. One of the main components of war is the way it is fought, which is identified as tactics. Shahnameh is rich in terms of war points and commands many of which are compatible with the provisions of codes of conduct and the current war manuals developed in the light of various wars in the world.This study first offers definitions on war, epic, kinds and causes and nine principles of war and their compatibility with the similar notions in Shahnameh. Then, war and strategies of war in Shahnameh are elaborated. Then, those notions are renamed based on the current and common principles and strategies. Compatibility of these tactics is an indication of the strategic nature of war strategies in Shahnameh.

Holy regime of the I.R. of Iran is characterized by its religious nature and religiousness is the inevitable specification of the practitioners of the (Islamic) regime. Army forces as the powerful arms of the Velayat (jurisdiction) and guards of the geographical borders of the regime are supposed to be staffed by religious and faithful officers. Imam Ali University is shouldering to educate officers for the army of the I.R. of Iran. Investigation of the extent of spirituality of the cadets is a requirement from the army authorities. Feeling similar accountability, the researcher embarked on conducting this study. To do so and given the comprehensibility and delimitation of any definition, Gelak and Staurk’s religiousness model as a western in nature and Shojaiezand’s model as a native one was comparatively studied. As a result, the latter was identified more valid for the Iranian setting. Conducting a survey study, the researcher distributed a related questionnaire. 150 randomly-sampled cadets attended the study. Statistically mean, frequency analysis and t-test were run, the findings revealed that the mean score indicating spirituality was 2.96 out of 3; commitment to ethics 2.41, commitment to religious worships and practices scored 2.62 and 2.81, respectively.In sum, many of the cadets are strong in terms of religious beliefs (81.3).