• Command is critical to military effectiveness and has evolved to reflect the changing character of military operations.
• The age of the heroic general with his aide-de-camp and staff has passed
• The span of command has increased and the number of decisions which generals have to make has increased
• Modern commanders delegate decision-making to highly professionalised command teams which refine, accelerate and multiply decision-making capacity
• New Warwick research explores this change and seeks to understand the lifeworld of the military headquarters and military decision-making

In a new book launched this week, Professor Anthony King from the University of Warwick Department of Politics and International Studies explores how military command has adapted to the demands of twenty-first century warfare.

Command – The Twenty-first Century General examines in rich detail the ways in which modern divisional commanders, such as General James Mattis, General David Petraeus, and General Sir Nick Carter, actually made operational and tactical decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan, contrasting this with historic examples such as Rommel and Montgomery to explore how command and leadership have changed in response to the changing nature of modern war.

Drawing on interviews with leading military figures, King tackles the question of how generals actually make decisions. He argues that the individualistic leadership style of the twentieth-century general, typically assisted by a small personal staff, has given way to a more collective command structure, where commanders are supported by highly professionalised command teams.

Professor King said: “In this book I wanted not to criticise generals but to analyse the precise practice of command in the twenty-first century, and to identify its challenges by understanding how commanders had actually made decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan and how they are likely to make decisions in the future.”

King focuses on command at the level of the army division – a group of around 20,000 troops – in his research into the mechanics of military decision-making.

Reflecting on how warfare has changed, King explains: “Today, military operations are conducted at great range, over longer time periods, with the use of heterogenous military forces under a legal and political framework in which precision and proportionality are critical.

“In place of individual decision-making, a practice of collective command has emerged. Commanders are now supported by highly professionalised command teams which refine, accelerate and multiply decision-making capacity.

“The nature of command remains – generals have authority to make decisions about the fate of their own soldiers and their enemies – but the character of command has evolved.”

• The research for this book was supported by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) grant ES/N007859/1

25 February 2019

Command – The Twenty-first Century General by Anthony King, Professor of War Studies, University of Warwick, will be published on 28 February by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108642941

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Anthony King specialises in the study of the war and the armed forces and is particularly interested in the question of small unit cohesion. His most recent publications include The Combat Soldier: infantry tactics and cohesion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Oxford, 2013) and (ed.) Frontline: combat and cohesion in the twenty-first century (Oxford, 2015). He has worked closely with the armed forces as an adviser and mentor.

ABOUT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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