Command: The Twenty-First-Century General

✍ Scribed by Anthony King

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 505
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In the wake of the troubled campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, military decision-making appears to be in crisis and generals have been subjected to intense and sustained public criticism. Taking these interventions as a starting point, Anthony King examines the transformation of military command in the twenty-first century. Focusing on the army division, King argues that a phenomenon of collective command is developing. In the twentieth century, generals typically directed and led operations personally, monopolising decision-making. They commanded individualistically, even heroically. As operations have expanded in range and scope, decision-making has multiplied and diversified. As a result command is becoming increasingly professionalised and collaborative. Through interviews with many leading generals and vivid ethnographic analysis of divisional headquarters, this book provides a unique insight into the transformation of command in western armies.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Figures
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Command in the Twenty-First Century
2 The Division
3 Defining Command
4 Twentieth-Century Operations
5 Twentieth-Century Command
6 Leadership
7 The Counter-Insurgents
8 Kandahar
9 The March Up
10 The New Headquarters
11 Distributing Command
12 The Decision Point
13 The Crisis
14 The Command Collective
Bibliography
Index