Leadership On The Future Battlefield

The sixth edition of this classic text continues its popular interdisciplinary approach to the topic of leadership by examining fundamental elements of military leadership: the 'process' of leadership, the dynamic personal interactions between leader and followers, and the individual and organizational values that foster effective military leadership. Military Leadership provides a thoroughly reconsidered and greatly expanded mix of classic and contemporary articles as well as original essays, with authors representing all of the services. Incisive introductory essays to each section highlight themes and connections. Eric B. Rosenbach joins the editorial team for this edition, helping infuse the text with fresh perspectives. The essays of the sixth edition confront the kudos and criticisms that surround military leadership today, offer international viewpoints, and relate military leadership to contemporary leadership theory and approaches.

"This monograph analyzes the leadership characteristics that suggest a rapid acceptance of changing conditions in warfare among senior leaders and which leadership characteristics tend to suggest a more conservative approach. This conservative approach fails to recognize and adapt to the new emerging conditions. This research studied two World War I British leaders, General Sir Ivor Maxse and General Sir Hurbert Gough, and compared and contrasted their leadership characteristics. From this, the research identified the most significant leadership characteristics that allowed these leaders to successfully adapt quickly in a time of transition. The criteria for analysis was based on four leadership characteristics as defined in FM 22-100, Army Leadership: Revised Final Draft, dated June 1998. The four leadership characteristics used as evaluation criteria were personal courage, initiative, tactical skill, and learning. A comparison of the role of the two World War I leaders yields the conclusion that certain leadership characteristics allowed them to adapt more easily in an evolving environment and facilitated successful battlefield leadership. These characteristics were moral courage, initiative, tactical skill and the application of knowledge through effective, continual learning. The monograph provides valuable insights into what leadership characteristics will allow current and future leaders to be successful, and unsuccessful, during a military transitional period. Our leaders must be creative, intuitive, dynamic, and able to make contemplated decisions, and have the courage and determination to act on them. The requirement for developing those leaders is an important one for the United States and a demanding one for the U.S. Army. An understanding of these leadership characteristics and the reasons that they facilitate successful battlefield leadership can provide an intellectual foundation beneficial to the Army as it prepares for future warfare."--Abstract

This monograph analyzes the leadership characteristics that suggest a rapid acceptance of changing conditions in warfare among senior leaders and which leadership characteristics tend to suggest a more conservative approach. This conservative approach fails to recognize and adapt to the new emerging conditions. This research studied two World War I British leaders, General Sir Ivor Maxse and General Sir Hubert Gough, and compared and contrasted their leadership characteristics. From this, the research identified the most significant leadership characteristics that allowed these leaders to successfully adapt quickly in a time of transition. The criteria for analysis was based on four leadership characteristics as defined in FM 22-100, Army Leadership: Revised Final Draft, dated June 1998. The four leadership characteristics used as evaluation criteria were personal courage, initiative, tactical skill, and learning.A comparison of the role of the two World War I leaders yields the conclusion that certain leadership characteristics allowed them to adapt more easily in an evolving environment and facilitated successful battlefield leadership. These characteristics were moral courage, initiative, tactical skill and the application of knowledge through effective, continual learning. The monograph provides valuable insights into what leadership characteristics will allow current and future leaders to be successful, and unsuccessful, during a military transitional period. Our leaders must be creative, intuitive, dynamic, and able to make contemplated decisions, and have the courage and determination to act on them. The requirement for developing those leaders is an important one for the United States and a demanding one for the U.S. Army. An understanding of these leadership characteristics and the reasons that they facilitate successful battlefield leadership can provide an intellectual foundation beneficial to the Army as it prepares for future warfare.

An urgent, prescient, and expert look at how future technology will change virtually every aspect of war as we know it and how we can respond to the serious national security challenges ahead. Future war is almost here: battles fought in cyberspace; biologically enhanced soldiers; autonomous systems that can process information and strike violently before a human being can blink. A leading expert on the place of technology in war and intelligence, Robert H. Latiff, now teaching at the University of Notre Dame, has spent a career in the military researching and developing new combat technologies, observing the cost of our unquestioning embrace of innovation. At its best, advanced technology acts faster than ever to save the lives of soldiers; at its worst, the deployment of insufficiently considered new technology can have devastating unintended or long-term consequences. The question of whether we can is followed, all too infrequently, by the question of whether we should. In Future War, Latiff maps out the changing ways of war and the weapons technologies we will use to fight them, seeking to describe the ramifications of those changes and what it will mean in the future to be a soldier. He also recognizes that the fortunes of a nation are inextricably linked with its national defense, and how its citizens understand the importance of when, how, and according to what rules we fight. What will war mean to the average American? Are our leaders sufficiently sensitized to the implications of the new ways of fighting? How are the attitudes of individuals and civilian institutions shaped by the wars we fight and the means we use to fight them? And, of key importance: How will soldiers themselves think about war and their roles within it? The evolving, complex world of conflict and technology demands that we pay more attention to the issues that will confront us, before it is too late to control them. Decrying what he describes as a "broken" relationship between the military and the public it serves, Latiff issues a bold wake-up call to military planners and weapons technologists, decision makers, and the nation as a whole as we prepare for a very different future.

No one man can win a battle by himself, but battles have been won and lost because of the strength or failings of one individual: the leader. What went on in the minds and hearts of a select group of military leaders at critical moments in battle is the theme of this book. In Leaders and Battles, W. J. Wood re-creates ten battles from history, depicting the action in vivid detail—the brilliant formations, charging horses, clanking bayonets. The point of view is always that of the commanding officer. The particular quality of leadership that won—or lost—the encounter is very clear. For Mad Anthony Wayne at Stony Point, it was courage that won the day. For Scipio Africanus at Ilipa, it was imagination. Custer’s judgment at the Little Big Horn was definitely in question. When the French stormed Ratisbon, it was the inspiration of Lannes that broke the impasse. At the battle of Bushy Run, Bouquet could never have outwitted Pontiac had he lacked flexibility. The dynamics of battle as well as the strategy and tactics involved are equally well demonstrated. Though the means of fighting varied as much as the time and the civilizations involved, the lessons learned are just as applicable today. Men no longer fight with drawn swords, make barricades out of mealie bags, or use a swarm of bees as a weapon. But that is part of this book’s fascination. Leaders and Battles is a remarkable retelling of fighting engagements for the armchair strategist, the leader in training, the history buff, and the general reader. It will take time before the major wars and low-intensity skirmishes of this century can be written about with the historical detachment and understanding that the author displays here. In the meantime, we can all profit from these lessons of history.