The Post-Heroic General: military command in the 21st century

后英雄将军：21世纪的军事指挥

• 批准号: ES/N007859/1
• 负责人: Anthony King
• 金额: $ 34.42万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FN007859%2F1
• 关键词: Post; Heroic; General; military; command

Many academics, journalists and senior officers have claimed that the Iraq and Afghan campaigns were characterized by flawed military command at the strategic and operational levels. The armed forces have themselves recognized the issue and are currently renovating command structures to overcome the problems experienced on recent operations. Specifically, western armed forces, led by the United States and supported by the UK and France, are re-investing in and reforming command at the divisional level (a formation of some 20,000 soldiers) which they have identified as decisive for future campaigns. This research aims to analyse and assess the reformation of military command at the divisional level in the 21st century. Emerging during the First World War and enduring for most of the 20th century, the modern 'combined armed' division was a large but simple organisation designed primarily for conventional inter-state land warfare. It consisted of combat troops supported by artillery and typically defended or attacked a small front of some ten miles against a similar opponent. The twenty-first century division is different. It is a multi-functional organization commanding diverse land, air and informational assets against hybrid enemies over a huge area. While the division remains the decisive tactical formation, it has expanded and diversified. It has consequently required a radical reformation of command.Analysing this transformation of divisional command, the proposed project distinctively focuses not on commanders as charismatic individuals but on the social institution of command, which it locates in the relations between commanders and their staff within the headquarters, influenced by the wider chain of command. The research will show how command is collectively constituted by commanders and their staff. Specifically, the research aims to identify how decisions are made and executed by commanders and their staff together.The research explores and tests a thesis that command has become 'post-heroic'. Precisely because divisional operations are now so complex involving multiple functions over large tracts of space and time, divisional commanders can no longer direct or lead operations personally, as they did - sometimes heroically - in the twentieth century. No single individual can coordinate this intricate organization and its functions. Divisional command has been distributed and shared so that in place of a single commander making rapid individual decisions, command boards consisting of senior officers, who advise the commander, have emerged. Decisions have become collective and even bureaucratised; staff procedures channel and structure the commander's authority. In order to unite the increasingly complex division, generalship is increasingly becoming 'post-heroic'.The commander is still vital to a division, of course. Precisely because its functions are so complex, there must be a single and ultimate point of authority. Here, personality remains essential to a divisional command but it takes a quite different form from the 20th century. It is no longer directed so much at sustaining the morale of troops as generating partnerships with other agencies and organisations, many of which are not military. Generals are no longer simply warriors but facilitators. The research will test this thesis through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in the UK, US, France and Germany, supported by archival research. In this way, the research will identify the distinguishing features of 21st military command to identify its capabilities, its requirements and its necessary limitations. In this way, the research aims to contribute not only to inter-disciplinary debates in the social and political science about defence, the armed forces, war, organizations and leadership but also to contribute to policy discussions about military reform and to assist practitioners in understanding generalship today.

许多学者、记者和高级军官声称，伊拉克和阿富汗战役的特点是，军事指挥在战略和行动层面存在缺陷。武装部队自己也认识到这一问题，目前正在改革指挥结构，以克服最近行动中遇到的问题。具体而言，由美国领导并得到英国和法国支持的西方武装部队正在重新投资和改革师级指挥（约20，000名士兵组成），他们认为这对未来的战役具有决定性意义。本研究旨在分析与评估21世纪世纪师级军事指挥体制的改革。在第一次世界大战期间出现，并持续了世纪的大部分时间，现代的“联合武装”师是一个大而简单的组织，主要是为常规的国家间陆战而设计的。它由炮兵支援的作战部队组成，通常在大约10英里的小范围内防御或攻击类似的对手。21世纪的划分则不同。它是一个多功能的组织，指挥着不同的陆地、空中和信息资产，在广阔的区域内对抗混合型敌人。虽然该师仍然是决定性的战术编队，但它已经扩大和多样化。在分析师级指挥的这种转变时，拟议的项目特别关注的不是指挥官作为有魅力的个人，而是指挥的社会机构，它定位于指挥官与总部内参谋人员之间的关系，受到更广泛的指挥链的影响。这项研究将显示指挥是如何由指挥官及其参谋人员集体组成的。具体来说，这项研究旨在确定指挥官和他们的参谋人员是如何共同做出和执行决策的。这项研究探索并检验了一个论点，即指挥已经成为“后英雄主义”。正因为现在的师级作战如此复杂，涉及在大片空间和时间内的多种职能，师级指挥官再也不能亲自指挥或领导作战，就像他们在世纪所做的那样--有时是英勇的。没有一个人能够协调这个复杂的组织及其功能。分区指挥权已经分散和共享，因此，由高级军官组成的指挥委员会取代了由一名指挥官迅速作出个人决定的做法，他们向指挥官提供咨询意见。决策已经变得集体化，甚至官僚化;参谋程序引导和构建了指挥官的权力。为了把日益复杂的师团结起来，将帅越来越“后英雄”，当然，指挥官对一个师来说仍然至关重要。正因为它的功能如此复杂，必须有一个单一的和最终的权威点。在这里，个性对于一个师的指挥仍然是必不可少的，但它采取了与20世纪世纪截然不同的形式。它不再是为了维持部队的士气，而是与其他机构和组织建立伙伴关系，其中许多不是军事机构。将军不再只是战士，而是促进者。本研究将透过在英国、美国、法国和德国的多地点民族志田野调查和访谈，并辅以档案研究，来验证本论文。通过这种方式，研究将确定第21军事司令部的显着特点，以确定其能力，要求和必要的限制。通过这种方式，研究的目的不仅是促进跨学科的辩论，在社会和政治科学有关国防，武装部队，战争，组织和领导，但也有助于有关军事改革的政策讨论，并协助从业人员了解今天的将军。

项目成果

Re-Remembering Dunkirk: art, commemoration and memory

重温敦刻尔克：艺术、纪念与记忆

• 发表时间: 2017
• 作者: King A C

Command - The Twenty-First-Century General

指挥 - 二十一世纪的将军

• DOI: 10.1017/9781108642941
• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: King A

The Deputy Enhancing Command in the Twenty-First Century

二十一世纪副指挥的强化

• DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2017.1328163
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: The RUSI Journal
• 作者: King A

Operation Moshtarak: Counter-insurgency command in Kandahar 2009-10

莫什塔拉克行动：坎大哈反叛乱指挥部 2009-10

• DOI: 10.1080/01402390.2019.1672160
• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Journal of Strategic Studies
• 影响因子: 1.9
• 作者: King A

Sport, war and commemoration: football and remembrance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

体育、战争与纪念：二十世纪和二十一世纪的足球与纪念

• DOI: 10.1080/16138171.2016.1226027
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: European Journal for Sport and Society
• 影响因子: 2.4
• 作者: King A