Doc Dr Mikael Weissmann

Land Warfare | Urban Warfare | Hybrid Threats and Foreign Interference| Intelligence Analysis | Russian Warfare & Influence | China | Asia

Exploring Urban Warfare then, now and in the future

During 1-4 March I conducted a staff ride in the Netherlands with a focus on urban combat and resistance under occupation together with Patrik Wiklund from the Military History Division of the Swedish Defence University. Special focus was put on the Battle of Nijmegen and the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 and the experiences of German occupation in Amsterdam during the second world war.

We also visit Eben-Emael and Grebbeberg to discuss innovation and creativity in war, the importance of willingness to fight and the role of history and war games in PME.

 

 

Staff Ride reconnaissance in Belgium & France

On 27 Feb – 1 Mar a team from the Land Operations Divisions, with support from the Military History Division, conducted a reconnaissance and experience-sharing exercise in Belgium and France. During the trip, we studied examples from both world wars, studying the 1940 Spring Offensive, the Battle of Somme 1916 and the Battle of Amiens 1918.  The aim was to draw lessons from previous executions within the Staff Course of the Swedish Defence University.



Visit to the Netherlands Defence Academy/Royal Military Academy

On 2 March I visited the Netherlands Defence Academy/Royal Military Academy in Breda together with Patrik Wiklund from the Military History Division of the Swedish Defence University. We had meetings with representatives from the academy, discussing staff rides and other areas of shared concerns including urban warfare and staff rides with representatives from the Military History  & Strategy Division and the Military Operational Sciences Division.

En handbok om fältövningar

I just published a handbook on planning and conducting staff rides in Swedish titled En handbok om fältövningar: Att planera och leda en fältövning.

The full text can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7655034  The Swedish text is a development of our peer-reviewed English article “Staff Rides as a Pedagogical Tool in Professional Military Education (PME): Planning and Conducting Historical Staff Rides” in the Journal on Baltic Security available here

Abstract:
Praktiska pedagogiska redskap är en central del i utbildningen av officerare. Detta är ett område där det finns en lång tradition, både på Försvarshögskolan och inom Försvarsmakten mer generellt. Detta är också ett område där Försvarshögskolan alltid har varit framträdande, där metoder som applikatoriska exempel (applex), krigsspel, fältövningar, stabstjänstövningar och taktiska problem under lång tid har använts. Denna handbok riktar in sig på ett av dessa pedagogiska redskap: fältövningar. 

Handboken är disponerad som följer: först ges en historisk bakgrund till fältövningar och vi diskuterar vad en fältövning är och vilka typer som finns. Därefter flyttar fokus till tankar kring att planera och genomföra en fältövning. Här diskuterar vi planeringsfasen, lärdomar kring nyttan av att rekognosera inför genomförande och tankar kring fältövningens pedagogiska genomförande. Handboken avslutas med en diskussion kring hur man bör tänka när man planerar och genomför en fältövning, både praktiskt och pedagogiskt. Här presenteras även en schematisk modell kring fältövningens pedagogiska dynamik för olika målgrupper baserat på deras förförståelse och olika fältövningars komplexitet.

 

New Article on Staff Rides as a pedagogical tool

 My new peer-reviewed article on “Staff Rides as a Pedagogical Tool in Professional Military Education (PME): Planning and Conducting Historical Staff Rides” has just been published in Journal on Baltic Security. It has been co-authored by Major Jonas Björkqvist and Patrik Wiklund at the Swedish Defence University.

Abstract:
The use of various practical pedagogical tools is an important part of officer training. This is also an area where there is a long tradition in the training of officer cadets and officers in staff colleges as well as in the Armed Forces more generally. This article focuses on staff rides aimed at teaching tactics and operational arts based on historical examples. This type of staff-rides aims to learn from history with a bearing on the present and the future.

The article is organized as follows: first, the article gives a short overview of the history of staff rides, followed by a discussion on different types of staff rides. Then the focus shifts to ways to plan and carry out a staff ride. This includes the planning phase, reconnaissance, and the different pedagogical tools that can be used and their implementation. The article concludes with a discussion of how to think when planning and carrying out staff rides, both practically and pedagogically. The article here presented a schematic model of the pedagogical dynamics of the staff ride for different target groups based on their pre-understanding and the complexity of different field exercises.

Citation:
Weissmann, Mikael, Jonas Björkqvist, Patrik Wiklund, “Staff Rides as a Pedagogical Tool in Professional Military Education (PME): Planning and Conducting Historical Staff Rides”, Journal on Baltic Security 8(2022), no. 2, 61-82. FULL TEXT

Operation Mercury – The Battle of Crete

On 2-6 November Major Jonas Björkqvist and I conducted a Staff Ride in Crete studying Operation Mercury, the German airborn invasion of Crete in May 1941. This trip is part of a development project to enhance our teaching for  Officer Cadets at the Swedish Defence University.

The focus was on Constructive Alignment and the use of War Games as a pedagogical tool in Staff Rides and Case Studies.

 

To learn more about our approach to Staff Rides, please read our article “Staff Rides as a Pedagogical Tool in Professional Military Education (PME): Planning and Conducting Historical Staff Rides” in the Journal on Baltic Security, the peer-reviewed journal of the Baltic Defence College.  [Full text]

International workshop on “Case Studies of Russian Warfare and Influence”

On 21-22 September, we organised an international workshop on “Case Studies of Russian Warfare and Influence” with participants from Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, Latvia, the United States and Sweden. The aim of the workshop was to take a holistic approach to how Russia conducts warfare and influence against countries in its immediate surroundings, i.e. against states at the intersection between the East and West.

The workshop was funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Grant No: F20-0119) and organized by the Land Operations Division, the Department of Military Studies and Military History of the Swedish Defence University (SEDU).

The findings of the workshop will be part of a forthcoming book on “Russian Warfare and Influence: Small States in the intersection between the East and West” (Bloomsbury Academic). We here focus on the small states at the intersection between the East and West as actors and stakeholders and are interested in how they operate and react based on their specific conditions, rather than on the modus of major powers.

Previous activities

Due to a problem with my previous domain host I have had to redo my webpage. You can find information about my previous activities here: https://web.archive.org/web/20221014233151/http://www.mikaelweissmann.com/

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