Understanding Shuangxue: The PLAAF's Learning Organization Initiative

By Jess Woo

As the People's Liberation Army PLA continues to undergo a wide range of institutional and equipment changes, it garners much attention from think tanks, academics, and other militaries from around the world. While the organizational and technological changes of the PLA are certainly important and merit study, one aspect that often is overlooked is the 'softer' side, the people who actually operate that equipment, and occupy the positions that make up the organizations. This study focuses on how the PLA Air Force is attempting to better educate their people, promote learning, and thereby improve their combat effectiveness, the ultimate goal of any military. While many western nations' militaries have a long history of multi-faceted education and learning built into their personnel systems, the PLA, like many other communist-modeled militaries, has tended to focus on military training, vice education, limited to an individual's specific position at the time, and left the 'education' portion to focus solely on political education in support of the Party. This appears to be slowing changing. With the introduction of the Shuangxue, aka double learning, model, the PLA is attempting to incorporate training and education across different levels and specialties. Inevitably this attempt to change not just a system, but a mindset, will have successes and failures, but it appears to have garnered enough momentum and senior level support to persist into the foreseeable future. This study seeks to explain the origins of Shuangxue, provide examples and insights as to how it is being applied through the force, and set a baseline against which the future may be judged.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1727847326
• ISBN13: 9781727847321
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 38 Pages
• Weight: 0.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"