Throughout history, the concept of command -- as both a way to achieve objectives and as an assertion of authority -- has been essential to military action and leadership. But, as Sir Lawrence Freedman shows, it is also deeply political.
Military command has been reconstructed and revolutionized since the Second World War by nuclear warfare, small-scale guerrilla land operations and cyber interference. Freedman takes a global perspective, systematically investigating its practice and politics since 1945 through a wide range of conflicts from the French Colonial Wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bangladesh Liberation War to North Vietnam's Easter Offensive of 1972, the Falklands War, the Iraq War and Russia's wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. By highlighting the political nature of strategy, Freedman shows that military decision-making cannot be separated from civilian priorities and that commanders must now have the sensibility to navigate politics as well as warfare.
Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London. He was the official historian of the Falklands Campaign, and a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War ('the Chilcot Inquiry'). He has written extensively on nuclear strategy and the Cold War, and comments regularly on contemporary security issues. He is the author of The Future of War, Strategy, (a Financial Times and Economist book of the year) and A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East, which won the 2009 Lionel Gelber Prize and Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature.
Title: Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine
Author: Freedman, Sir Lawrence
ISBN: 9780241456996
Binding:
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication Date: 2022-09-08
Number of Pages: 608
Weight: 1.0603 kg
Lawrence Freedman is the dominant academic authority in Britain and the English-speaking world on the way modern wars have been fought. Rational, liberal-minded, clear-sighted, he has drawn on a lifetime of experience for his new book. ... Command is the history of our time, told through war. It's a wonderful, idiosyncratic feat of storytelling as well as an essential account of how the modern world's wars have been fought, written by someone whose grasp of complex detail is as strong and effective as the clarity of his style. I shall read it again and again. -- John Simpson * The Guardian *
wise ... insightful ... masterly ... One suspects that this well-researched, well-written and thought-provoking book will soon be required reading for any Nato officer hoping to exercise high command -- Andrew Roberts * BBC History Magazine *
Lawrence Freedman is one of our most distinguished military historians. In this thoughtful book, drawing on decades of study, he looks at the marriage of authorities that takes place in the running of wars since 1945: where political power meets military expertise, and who ends up having the final say. ... sumptuous ... this should be the standard text in staff colleges around the world, and for military-history studies. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *
In this broad survey of command in war since 1945, Lawrence Freedman brings to bear his extensive knowledge to explain the many complexities commanders at the highest level must now face, from grasping new ways of warfare to managing military organisation and supply and, above all, coping with the mercurial behaviour of their political masters. If there is a theme to Freedman's book, which ranges from the Korean War to Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine, it is to be found in the tensions and conflicts between military leaders and the politicians who call the shots that he documents. How often must a supreme commander have wished he were free to do what he wanted? Usually, politics has to be factored in. ... One of the revelations of Freedman's detailed and well-informed book is how difficult the management of conflict has become ... [an] invaluable panorama of the challenges of modern command -- Richard Overy * Literary Review *
Command is arguably his finest book - fluently written and convincingly argued - into which he distils a lifetime of study into the nature and practice of war. -- Saul David * The Times *
Sir Lawrence Freedman, Britain's most distinguished scholar of war, surveys 15 different battles and campaigns ... The lesson is that good command looks both ways, sensitive to the politics raging above while remaining in touch with the war being fought below. * Economist *
Freedman offers excellent concise summaries of some of the world's main clashes since 1950 ... The author makes an encouraging point when he concludes this useful book: The advantages of democratic systems lie not in their ability to avoid bad decisions, either by governments or commanders . . . The advantage lies in their ability to recognise these mistakes, learn and adapt. Closed systems, in which subordinates dare not ask awkward questions . . . will suffer operationally. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
Freedman's mastery of the subject of civil and military leadership in time oifwar is peerless ... a fascinating study of the psychological and political characteristics that determine success or failure in leadership in war. -- Tom Clonan * The Irish Times *
The most brilliant critique of the Ukraine war has just appeared in Command by veteran strategist Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman. The book is about the tangles of command, politicians playing soldiers and soldiers playing politician in nine wars of this century. -- Robert Fox * Evening Standard *
