Bulletin 2025 zur Schweizerischen Sicherheitspolitik
[CSS ETH, 2025, Lucas Renaud, Daniel Möckli et al.]
Das Bulletin 2025 zur Schweizerischen Sicherheitspolitik liefert eine Bestandesaufnahme angesichts der aktuellen globalen sicherheitspolitischen Entwicklungen. Es beleuchtet unter anderem die Bedeutung eines «Drohnen-Ökosystems» für die Schweiz, die Notwendigkeit der Weiterentwicklung des Bevölkerungsschutzsystems sowie die Rolle der Schweiz als Vorsitz in der Organisation für Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa (OSZE). Zudem analysiert es die Herausforderungen und Chancen, die sich für das Labor Spiez aus dem Wandel des Umfelds und dem technologischen Fortschritt ergeben. Eröffnet wird das Bulletin mit einem Interview mit Bundesrat und VBS-Vorsteher Martin Pfister.
Realising Societal Resilience for a Whole of Society Approach to Defence
[RUSI, 14.10.2025, Katharine A.M. Wright]
Open and democratic societies are inherently vulnerable to information warfare: influencing citizens’ votes can give foreign actors leverage over what should be domestic decisions. But resilience against disinformation is only one dimension of societal resilience—a broad concept spanning everything from citizens’ critical thinking to universities training enough doctors for potential mass-casualty events, to education that gives young adults a basic grasp of security policy and resilience. Wright argues that effective societal resilience depends on strong trust in government and on people feeling safe rather than preoccupied with other pressures. From this perspective, she highlights the UK’s housing and health crises as key factors undermining societal resilience.
Why Mechanized Warfare Will Still Be Decisive in the Next Land War
[War on the Rocks, 02.01.2026, Scott Rutter, Matthew C. Paul]
Rutter and Paul argue that the war in Ukraine shows mechanised forces are not obsolete: they remain essential for seizing and holding ground. Their effectiveness, however, depends on operating within a “window of advantage”. On a sensor-saturated, drone-rich battlefield, tanks work only when commanders create brief windows through deception, ISR, electronic warfare, rapid breaching, and tightly synchronised fires. Platform upgrades alone are therefore insufficient. The authors call for shifting emphasis toward unmanned systems, EW, ISR, AI-enabled command and control, and logistics that can sustain short, violent mechanised thrusts.
Ten Jolting Takeaways from Trump’s New National Security Strategy
[War on the Rocks, 05.12.2025, Rick Landgraf]
This article gives a quick summary of the new National Security Strategy of the US, released in November 2025. Apart from being influenced by US domestic politics, it highlights how the strategy seeks to prioritise US influence in the Western hemisphere over influence in other regions, in what has been called the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, or the “Donroe Doctrine”. In regards to Europe, the prioritisation of the Western hemisphere goes hand-in-hand with the US attitude towards European defence changing from an attempt at burden-sharing to burden-shifting.
Link: https://warontherocks.com/2025/12/ten-jolting-takeaways-from-trumps-new-national-security-strategy/
Faster Wars, Smarter Minds: Driving the Army’s Quiet Cognitive Revolution
[War on the Rocks, 02.09.2025, Milford Beagle Jr.]
Beagle’s core claim is that battlefield technology is advancing faster than human cognition can keep up—so building cognitive capacity is as important as investing in new systems. He frames AI as “additional intelligence”: a tool for synthesis and pattern-finding that expands what staffs can see and process, not an automatic decision-maker or a substitute for responsibility. The article argues that US professional military education is being redesigned to build that cognitive edge—by strengthening adaptive and creative thinking, using AI-enabled tools to personalise learning, and accelerating doctrinal updates. The aim is leaders who ask better questions, critically test machine outputs, and integrate new capabilities ethically and effectively.
A Secure Europe Between Gaullism and ‘Daddy’
[CEPA, 08.07.2025, Roland Freudenstein]
Europe faces an aggressive neighbour in the East and a transatlantic partner that is unpredictable at best—and hostile at worst. Against this backdrop, Freudenstein argues that Europe should choose neither an anti-American, Gaullist path nor subservience to the US. Instead, he claims the most responsible course lies between these two extremes.
Link: https://cepa.org/article/a-europe-secure-between-gaullism-and-washington/
Über das «Update Führung»
Das Update Führung ist eine wiederkehrende Rubrik des Newsletters Leader’s Digest. Dieser Newsletter entsteht in Kooperation des Leadership Campus der Schweizer Armee und der Dozentur Führung und Kommunikation der Militärakademie an der ETH Zürich. Wenn Sie Leader’s Digest noch nicht abonniert haben, finden Sie unter folgendem Link weitere Informationen sowie das Formular zur Anmeldung.
Falls Sie Lesenswertes zu Command, Leadership oder Management entdecken, würden wir uns freuen, wenn Sie dies mit uns teilen. Gerne nehmen wir Tipps für die kommende Ausgabe von Leader’s Digest via document.getElementById(«email-obfuscator-leadersdigest»).innerHTML=»R-Znvy».replace(/[a-zA-Z]/g,function(c){return String.fromCharCode((c=(c=c.charCodeAt(0)+13)?c:c-26);});[Aktivieren Sie JavaScript, um die E-Mail-Adresse anzuzeigen] entgegen.