Chief of Staff’s Introduction

The Dado Center Journal has for a number of years served as a key platform on which an animated and frequently critical discourse about the changes needed in the IDF has taken place. These changes are essential in light of the challenges presented by our enemies as well as the numerous opportunities that exist in this era.

In the Order of the Day that I issued when I took over as the 22^nd Chief of Staff of the IDF, I wrote that “the principle that will guide our actions is readiness to change.” The ability of the IDF to defeat our enemies requires constant readiness, which we must strive to improve. Nevertheless, the scale of the responsibility that we bear, is derived no less from the need to adapt the IDF to the challenges of the present and the future, and from the necessity of knowing how to change.

The reality around us is constantly changing. New threats are developing, and we encounter new opportunities on our path. For these reasons, and the need to remain relevant, we are required to change. The essence of the required change involves creating a clear gap between us and our enemies, which can lead to a clear victory. This type of victory is based on three key variables: achievements, price and time. The achievements must be larger; the price must be as small as possible (in civilians, soldiers, infrastructure, weapons); and the time must to be shorter.

The enemy is learning and changing all the time,  due in part to the current technological age which  accelerates the enemy’s rate of development and presents the IDF with a challenge that should not be discounted. This challenge requires intellectual and practical efforts from us, which must be profound and constant, and whose essence is change that is matched to the highest directive of any military force – ensuring a clear victory in any war that is forced upon us. It is not the strong who survive, but rather those that adapt themselves to change.

The need to maintain and improve readiness for a war, which could break out at any moment, and in parallel the need to change in order to remain relevant, led us to the organizing principle of the coming years upon which I based that Order of the Day, "Readiness and Change.”

“If we fight – we fight in the future, and we won’t return to the past. The enemies that we faced in the past, there is no certainty that they will behave in the future as they did in the past. On the contrary…”  (David Ben Gurion, Unity and Destiny)

This landmark edition of the Dado Center Journal is an additional layer in our intellectual discourse and the practical path that we are following. We will continue to follow this path in the coming years, leading to force design to create a lethal, relevant and effective army. We must demand from ourselves that we never cease to provide a clear and convincing response to the form of war that has been developing around us in the past decades, and to ensure it is ineffective for our enemies. This challenge is of great interest not just for us, but also for the world, as the leading researchers who contributed to this edition can attest. In striving for stability and security, the IDF is required to build a suitable and up-to-date response to the terror armies that have been built around us, and to achieve victory in any campaign through undisputed military power.

In summary, congratulations to the Dado Center Journal team on initiating and implementing this project – which is an expression of our curiosity, critical approach, practicality and permanent desire to improve.

LTG Aviv Kochavi

Chief of the General Staff