Building Capability: Affordable and Cooperative Solutions for a Small State

Lesson Overview

Lessons 03 and 04 decided what capability the force needs and located, precisely, where it falls short. This lesson takes up the building itself: how a small state closes those shortfalls within its limited means.

A wealthy power can close a shortfall by spending whatever it takes. A small state cannot. So it must build differently, by spending cleverly rather than lavishly, finding affordable and cooperative solutions that yield real capability from limited means. That demands creativity and discipline, not just a chequebook. This lesson teaches the two disciplines that make it possible: affordability, getting the most capability per unit of means; and cooperation, the great resource that lets a small state achieve with others what it cannot achieve alone.

By the end you will be able to explain why a small state spends cleverly rather than lavishly; apply the disciplines of affordable capability-building; explain cooperation as a force multiplier, its forms and its limits; and build capability affordably and cooperatively for a small humanitarian home-defence force.

Key Terms

• Affordable capability-building: closing shortfalls within limited means by getting the most real capability per unit of means, rather than by spending lavishly.
• Spending cleverly, not lavishly: the small state's approach to building, since it cannot close shortfalls by spending whatever it takes.
• Capability per unit of means: the measure of affordability; how much real capability a given expenditure yields. The small state seeks to maximise it.
• Cooperative solutions: closing shortfalls through cooperation with others, achieving together what the force cannot achieve alone.
• Cooperation as a force multiplier: the truth that cooperation lets a small state achieve more than its own means alone would allow.
• The forms of cooperation: cooperation with other states, with civil agencies, and with the civil sphere of one's own society.
• The limits of cooperation: the dependence it can create, and the capabilities that cannot be cooperated for and must be held independently.

Spending cleverly, not lavishly

Everything in this lesson rests on one fact: a small state builds by spending cleverly, not lavishly, and an officer must understand why.

The difference follows from the means. A wealthy power facing a shortfall can buy the equipment, hire the people, and build the organisation without straining its budget; for it, building capability is largely a decision to spend. A small state has no such latitude. Its means are too limited to close shortfalls regardless of cost, so it must find solutions that fit them.

This forces a real discipline, not a lesser version of the wealthy power's approach. The small state does not ask how to close the shortfall whatever the cost; it asks how to close it affordably, drawing the most real capability from what it has. That takes judgement and a willingness to reject the most expensive answer in favour of a better-value one. In a sense it is even an advantage: a force that must spend cleverly often builds more efficiently than one that can afford to spend wastefully. But it is demanding, and an officer of a small force must hold to it. The rest of the lesson teaches the two disciplines that make clever spending work: affordability and cooperation.

The disciplines of affordable capability-building

Affordability does not mean buying the cheapest capability regardless of effectiveness. It means getting the most real capability per unit of means. Three disciplines serve it.

Seek the most capability per unit of means. Different ways of closing a shortfall yield different amounts of capability for the same outlay. Evaluate them by that efficiency and choose the one that yields the most. This is the heart of affordable building.

Build the cheaper components first. The components of capability from Lesson 02 differ greatly in cost, and the most expensive one, usually equipment, is rarely the one that yields the most capability per unit of means. Training that makes existing equipment more effective, organisation that combines existing means better, and the quality and initiative of the people that the command course named a small force's chief strength all tend to yield more capability per pound than new equipment. Investing in these cheaper, often human, components is especially valuable for a small state.

Choose affordable solutions over impressive ones. The impressive solution usually yields less capability per unit of means than a modest one, and tempts all the same; Lesson 03 warned of that seduction. Prefer the modest solution that delivers real capability to the impressive one that delivers less.

Applied together, these let a small state build real, effective capability within its limited means.

   BUILDING CAPABILITY IN A SMALL STATE

   SPEND CLEVERLY, NOT LAVISHLY (cannot buy whatever it takes;
   must get real capability from limited means)

   AFFORDABILITY (most capability per unit of means):
   - seek the most CAPABILITY PER UNIT OF MEANS (efficient solutions)
   - build the CHEAPER COMPONENTS first: training, organisation,
     the QUALITY of the people, often yield more than equipment
   - choose AFFORDABLE over IMPRESSIVE solutions

   COOPERATION (a force multiplier: achieve what you cannot alone):
   - with other STATES (share, pool, draw on their capabilities)
   - with CIVIL AGENCIES and the CIVIL SPHERE of one's own society
   - LIMITS: dependence; capabilities that must be held INDEPENDENTLY

Cooperation: the great resource of a small state

Where affordability draws the most from the force's own means, cooperation draws on means beyond them. A small state's own resources are limited; the resources available through cooperation are larger. By cooperating, the force can reach capability it could never build alone. This makes cooperation a force multiplier, and an officer who neglects it forgoes one of the small state's great advantages.

It takes three main forms.

With other states. A small state may share capabilities, pool resources, or draw on what a partner has, reaching capability far beyond what its own means could build.

With civil agencies. Especially apt for a humanitarian home-defence force, which already works alongside other responders. The force need not build every capability a task requires when it can draw on the agencies it operates with, as the humanitarian doctrine's cooperation with the civil sphere teaches.

With the civil sphere of its own society. A small force can draw on the skills, resources, and capacities present in the nation rather than building everything in-house, which suits a force closely tied to its society.

For any shortfall, then, an officer asks not only how to close it affordably with the force's own means, but how cooperation might close it, or help close it, by drawing on capabilities beyond them. Cooperation is valuable, but it has limits, which the next section examines.

The limits of cooperation, and combining the two disciplines

Cooperation is weighed, not adopted blindly, because it carries cost and risk.

The first limit is dependence. Relying on others for a capability makes the force dependent on them, and that dependence becomes a vulnerability if they grow unavailable or unreliable, or if the cooperation ends. The force must judge whether it can count on the cooperation when the capability is actually needed.

The second limit is that some capabilities must be held independently. A few are too essential, too immediate, or too central to the force's own tasks to entrust to others. These the force must build and hold under its own control, even at the cost of its limited means, rather than cooperate for them.

So an officer uses cooperation where its value exceeds its cost and risk, while holding the essential capabilities independently.

Affordability and cooperation then work together. For each shortfall the officer asks how to close it within the small state's means using both: getting the most real capability per unit of the force's own means, and drawing on cooperation where it pays. Some shortfalls are closed affordably with the force's own means, some cooperatively, and many by a combination, the force building what it must hold itself and cooperating for what it can. This is the practical heart of a small state's capability-building. The officer who builds this way closes the force's shortfalls within its limited means. One who tries to build everything lavishly and alone exhausts those means without closing the shortfalls; one who relies on cooperation blindly becomes dangerously dependent.

In Practice: Closing a Shortfall Within Small Means

An officer of the Royal Kaharagian Army faces a shortfall located by analysis in the deficient components of a capability the force needs. The means to close it by simply spending whatever it takes do not exist, so the officer spends cleverly.

First, affordability. The officer evaluates the ways of closing the shortfall by how much capability each yields per unit of means and picks the most efficient. Noticing that the deficient components are partly human, the officer invests in training that makes the existing equipment more effective and in organisation that combines existing means better, rather than reaching first for new equipment. Where an impressive option and a modest one compete, the officer takes the modest one that actually delivers.

Then cooperation. The officer asks how others might help: another state to share a capability, the civil agencies the force already responds alongside, the skills present in the nation's civil sphere. Where the value clears the cost, the officer draws on them. But the officer weighs the limits, refusing to grow dependent on others for anything essential, and builds in-house the capabilities too central to entrust elsewhere, even though that spends scarce means.

The result: the shortfall is closed within the small state's limited means, partly affordably with the force's own resources, partly through cooperation, with the essential capabilities held independently. That is how a small force gets the real capability its tasks demand without lavish spending it cannot afford.

Check Your Understanding

1. Explain why a small state builds capability by spending cleverly rather than lavishly, and how this differs from a wealthy power's approach. Why is spending cleverly a distinct discipline rather than a lesser version of spending lavishly?
2. Describe the three disciplines of affordable capability-building. Why is investing in the cheaper, often human, components (training, organisation, the quality of the people) particularly valuable for a small state?
3. Explain cooperation as a force multiplier and give its three forms. Then explain its two limits, dependence and the capabilities that must be held independently, and how affordability and cooperation combine in practice.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson holds that the cheaper, less glamorous components, training, organisation, the quality of the people, often yield more real capability per unit of means than expensive equipment. Apply that to building any capability of your own with limited resources. When you want to get better at something, are you tempted by the expensive, visible thing, the tool or the credential, or do you invest in the cheaper things that often yield more, the skill, the practice, the better use of what you already have? Be honest; the pull toward the impressive is strong. Then consider cooperation, achieving with others what you cannot alone. Describe one way you could begin building your own capability more cleverly, so that one day, building a force's capability within a small state's means, you would build it affordably and cooperatively rather than waste limited means on the impressive.

Summary

• A small state builds by spending cleverly, not lavishly, because its limited means cannot close shortfalls regardless of cost. This is a distinct discipline that can make the small force build more efficiently than a wealthy power free to spend wastefully.
• Affordability rests on three disciplines: seek the most capability per unit of means; build the cheaper components first, since training, organisation, and the quality of the people often outyield expensive equipment; and choose affordable solutions over impressive ones.
• Cooperation is the great resource that lets a small state achieve what it cannot achieve alone. Its forms are cooperation with other states, with civil agencies and other responders (apt for a humanitarian force), and with the civil sphere of the nation.
• Cooperation has limits an officer must weigh: the dependence it creates, and the capabilities too essential to entrust to others, which must be held independently even at the cost of scarce means. Use cooperation where its value exceeds its cost; hold the essentials yourself.
• Affordability and cooperation work together, closing some shortfalls with the force's own means, some cooperatively, and many by both. This applies the components teaching of Lesson 02, closes the shortfalls identified in Lesson 04, draws on the humanitarian doctrine's cooperation, and leads into sustaining the capability built (Lesson 06).

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