Beyond Management: Strategic Thinking as a Ethic of Conduct in Military

Abstract

Strategic thinking in defense institutions transcends administrative planning and constitutes an ethical responsibility of institutional leadership. A systemic analysis of organizational functioning reveals that the structural distortions affecting the state—such as decision-making fragmentation, the primacy of short-term considerations immediate situation, and the breakdown of coherence between ends and means—do not originate solely in technical or regulatory deficiencies, but rather stem from a progressive weakening of strategic reasoning understood as an effective leadership practice. In this context, this article examines how the so-called "culture of urgency," together with certain manifestations of state informality, reduces the Armed Forces capacity to project their actions over long-term time horizons, shifts leadership toward predominantly administrative functions, and turns professional dissent into a practice perceived as inconvenient within the organization. Rather than proposing immediate solutions, the study suggests reaffirming strategic thinking as a central analytical category, aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity to interpret strategic time and preventing day-to-day management from becoming the limit of organizational vision.