Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine

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Which I guess brings us to the topic of the book you’ve just brought out, which is command and the importance of military command. It’s also a sign that none of these conflicts has been as existentially important as Washington originally said they were.

Command by Lawrence Freedman review: when generals get drunk

It is also because commanders in one realm must possess the ability to work with other command structures, including those of other branches of the armed forces and allies. But that’s the danger for the Ukrainians, is hubris sets in with them like it started with the Russians and they suddenly find themselves with a more difficult military situation than they anticipated. This is true still of most organisations, but many learn to cope with back and forth between the different levels when inappropriate or unobtainable goals have been set and inadequate resources have been allocated.They might well have learned from Hitler that being head of state and supreme commander is a recipe for disaster and gives the professional soldier, who might judge things more rationally or settle for less, little room for manoeuvre. Here, King combines an innovative methodology with the historical sensibility that has always been the hallmark of his work. Twenty years later, General Galtieri, the Argentinian dictator, seemed not to realise that the United Kingdom would send a task force 8,000 miles to liberate the Falkland Islands. Better to move back and forth behind their troops, making their interventions only when they became necessary. This is no exception, outstanding and deeply interesting, keeps vital context and within the framework of the subject.

Lawrence Freedman: ‘Autocracies tend to make catastrophic Lawrence Freedman: ‘Autocracies tend to make catastrophic

His most famous dictum—“war is the continuation of politics with other means”—actually suggests two ideas.At the lowest level, when a commander must be as brave as those being led, the heroic image may still be pertinent. Freedman’s view is never simply that of the headquarters, though, and he takes a savage pleasure in untangling the infighting among the staff and the soldiers on the ground.