Command : the twenty-first-century general /

Command : the twenty-first-century general /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	King, Anthony, 1967- author.
Imprint:	Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2019. ©2019
Description:	xx, 484 pages ; 23 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Command of troops -- History -- 21st century. Command of troops. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11782869

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:	Command : the 21st-century general
ISBN:	9781108476409 1108476406 9781108700276 1108700276
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"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"-- "It would be convenient to claim that a book on command exemplified its own subject matter and that this work executed a clear, coherent research plan with military precision. The reality was quite different. Having completed The Combat Soldier in 2012 (to be published the following year), I fully intended to return to the topic of warfare and the armed forces but only after I had completed a long contemplated project on social theory and on the question of social change, in particular"--

Table of Contents:

Command in the twenty-first century
The division
Defining command
Twentieth-century operations
Twentieth-century commander
Leadership
The counter-insurgents
Kandahar
The march up
The new headquarters
Distributing command
The decision point
The crisis
The command collective.