Leadership In Modern War

How would you react under fire? Fight or flight? What if you were in charge of a squad of men, with their lives in your hands? The next decision you make could be fatal for you and your comrades or could be devastating to your enemy. The wrong decision could haunt you for the rest of your career and beyond. The decisions taken by commanders in the field are analyzed in a detached manner by historians. But what, for example, was the thought process of a reconnaissance tank officer operating far ahead of any supporting troops in the Second World War, or a machine-gunner trying to differentiate friend from foe in the Gulf War? How might a British infantry officer in the Iraq War deal with the situations he faced in combat, or a platoon commander in the War Against ISIS, where the enemy had no fear of dying and even embraced it? How do you come to terms with the consequences of your decisions, the right ones as well as the tragically wrong ones? James Brooks presents defining moments such as these to put you in the shoes of the decision-maker. You can decide when to cross a bridge in Taliban territory, whether to land a helicopter under fire to rescue Marines in danger, and how to lead a command center targeting ISIS through air strikes. These decisions, compared with what the veterans did themselves, teach more about humanity than they do about the tactics of war and serve as lessons for the decisions we face in everyday life. In a career that traced the rise and fall of ISIS from 2014 to 2021, James served in the US Marine Corps as a scout sniper platoon commander, intelligence officer, and counter-propaganda mission lead. After two deployments to the Middle East and a year-and-a-half fighting ISIS propaganda online, James returned to his hometown to teach a subject called “Perspectives in Modern War” to high school seniors. Building from the stories of his own service, as well as those of the men and women he fought alongside, in Leadership in Modern War James captures these lessons and explores just what it is like to be on the front line facing your foe. Warfare has changed in the twenty-first century, but the enduring lessons of conflict remain the same. It is brutal and unforgiving – but it is also character-defining.

A comparison of nine leaders who led their nations through the greatest wars the world has ever seen and whose unique strengths—and weaknesses—shaped the course of human history, from the bestselling, award-winning author of Churchill, Napoleon, and The Last King of America “Has the enjoyable feel of a lively dinner table conversation with an opinionated guest.” —The New York Times Book Review Taking us from the French Revolution to the Cold War, Andrew Roberts presents a bracingly honest and deeply insightful look at nine major figures in modern history: Napoleon Bonaparte, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, George C. Marshall, Charles de Gaulle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Margaret Thatcher. Each of these leaders fundamentally shaped the outcome of the war in which their nation was embroiled. Is war leadership unique, or did these leaders have something in common, traits and techniques that transcend time and place and can be applied to the essential nature of conflict? Meticulously researched and compellingly written, Leadership in War presents readers with fresh, complex portraits of leaders who approached war with different tactics and weapons, but with the common goal of success in the face of battle. Both inspiring and cautionary, these portraits offer important lessons on leadership in times of struggle, unease, and discord. With his trademark verve and incisive observation, Roberts reveals the qualities that doom even the most promising leaders to failure, as well as the traits that lead to victory.

Since 1798, when Congress authorised John Adams to employ the navy to capture armed French vessels preying on American shipping along the Atlantic coast, US presidents have grappled with the complexities of war. Some have dealt with it skilfully while others have tended towards the inept. Some have wanted to exert their war powers while others have shied away from them. Some have been successful while others have not.

This edited volume focuses on civil-military relations before and during great power conflicts, and comprises historical case studies of modern supreme leadership. It aims to provide a guide for the future by shining a light on what worked and what failed in the civil-military relationships that steered great powers during the last era of rapid global change. While future civil-military relationships will have to adapt to the current global environment, the past remains, as always, a prelude. Thus, crucial concepts that underpin all such relationships are eternal and are waiting to be drawn out by historians trained to examine and present them to those who can put them to immediate good use. This volume demonstrates the relevance of history in every chapter, as readers will see parallels to today’s problems throughout every case study. The world is entering an age of great challenges, many of which require nations – particularly the most powerful – to establish civil-military relationships capable of navigating dangerous currents without a repeat of the calamities reminiscent of the last century. Each chapter focuses on a particular civil-military relationship as it developed before and during a great war. The editors have gathered leading experts on each of these periods to produce a concise but thorough essay on each relationship's intricacies. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, military history and international relations, as well as professional miliary colleges and policymakers.

This edited volume focuses on civil-military relations before and during great power conflicts, and comprises historical case studies of modern supreme leadership. It aims to provide a guide for the future by shining a light on what worked and what failed in the civil-military relationships that steered great powers during the last era of rapid global change. While future civil-military relationships will have to adapt to the current global environment, the past remains, as always, a prelude. Thus, crucial concepts that underpin all such relationships are eternal and are waiting to be drawn out by historians trained to examine and present them to those who can put them to immediate good use. This volume demonstrates the relevance of history in every chapter, as readers will see parallels to today's problems throughout every case study. The world is entering an age of great challenges, many of which require nations - particularly the most powerful - to establish civil-military relationships capable of navigating dangerous currents without a repeat of the calamities reminiscent of the last century. Each chapter focuses on a particular civil-military relationship as it developed before and during a great war. The editors have gathered leading experts on each of these periods to produce a concise but thorough essay on each relationship's intricacies. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, military history and international relations, as well as professional miliary colleges and policymakers.

In Connected Soldiers John Spencer delivers lessons about how to build teams in a way that overcomes the distractions of home and the outside world, without reducing the benefits gained from connections to family.

The material in this manual is based on an analysis of outstanding leadership displayed by both military and civilian leaders. Although these leaders were not all of the same pattern, and did not use the same methods of attaining success-all of them successfully applied some or all of the principles and techniques of leadership contained in this manual. A thorough study of these principles and techniques, combined with actual troop application, will help to develop and foster the high standard of leadership so urgently demanded by the complexities of modern warfare. In the final analysis, war is still waged by men.

This book approaches the World Wars and the decades between them as a single unit in modern history. It is impossible to understand either the cause or conduct of the 1939–45 war without an appreciation of the issues not wholly answered in the conflict of 1914–18. Bridging the World Wars was the establishment, revision, and ultimate collapse of the Versailles settlement and the League of Nations system between 1919 and 1939. The 1919 settlement was contested in the 1920s by Fascist Italy and began to unravel irreparably in 1931 with Japan’s incursion into Manchuria. The strategic thought of the interwar years is therefore especially instructive in assessing the prosecution of WWII, as the military ventures of these two revisionist powers pointed toward future developments even before Germany thrust a new way of war upon Eastern and Western Europe. Meanwhile, Britain, France, and the United States began an incremental conversion to new approaches to war in the air and on the sea in particular. The interwar decades are best understood as a period of calibrated rearmament by all the powers based on assumptions about the probability of a future war and the nature of its prosecution.