Thursday, January 18, 2007

sclerotic

His [Max Boot's] real worry is that the Pentagon's continued exploitation of the information revolution will be "hindered by a sluggish, bloated bureaucracy that has resisted countless reform efforts." Boot never fully explains why this bureaucracy, which has been sluggish and bloated for many years, did not hinder the U.S. military from moving so far and so fast in the first stage of the information revolution. But he suggests one reason: the bureaucracies of U.S. adversaries were even more sclerotic. On the other hand, "nimble, networked groups like al Qaeda may be better positioned than the United States to pursue today's brand of transformation into its next phase."

- from The Real Meaning of Military Transformation: Rethinking the Revolution, in the Jan/Feb 2007 Foreign Affairs.


sclerotic
noun

1. anatomy.
In vertebrates: the white fibrous outer layer of the eyeball, which is modified at the front of the eye to form the transparent cornea. Also called sclera.
adj

1. Hard or firm.
2. Relating to or affected with sclerosis.

Etymology: 16c: from Latin scleroticus, from Greek skleros hard.

-definition from allwords.com.

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