In my first-ever RBC bleg, I’m wondering if anyone knows of a first-rate, systematic work on military leadership. I need it for a class on leadership and coordination that I’ll be teaching next fall. I have other kinds of leadership mostly covered.
I’m looking for work on leadership narrowly understood: techniques for getting groups of soldiers to move, quickly, in the same direction, under dangerous or uncertain conditions, at the right time–and conditions under which different techniques work or don’t. Morale and related topics might well be relevant; work on seizing the initiative almost certainly is; general strategy probably isn’t. I’m looking for a something systematic: war stories are fine if they illustrate points, but I don’t want mere biography or collection of cases with no framework to make sense of it. Finally, I’ve seen a lot of work on military leadership for ROTC students and such that stresses professionalism and military discipline. That’s not really what I’m after either. There’s a difference between a professional soldier who will bring no discredit on the Army and a leader, and a difference between leadership and training.
A book would be best, but an article or set of articles would be OK failing that.
And by the way, I already know about Schelling. Wonderful stuff, but there’s already too much of his work in the class.
Thanks in advance!