On Leadership: A Question of Command - Paula Broadwell, Kings of War
In an earlier blog regarding the U.S. Army Officer Shortage, I highlighted a few problems with officer talent management that link to leadership development. In the interest of improving leadership development for our officer corps, I have been reading an great book by Dr. Mark Moyar of the U.S. Marine Corps University, A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq from Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2009.
As evidenced by the over-registered Marine Corps University's conference on "COIN Leadership in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond," where GEN Petraeus gave the keynote address to the "COIN Nation," there is a thirst for understanding the role of individual leadership in the COIN arena.
Readers from all ranks will be interested in Moyar's succint identification of what it takes to succeed in the contemporary operating environment. Anyone who understands that effective leadership in a counterinsurgency setting - or the conventional battlefield - often does come down to the behavior of one individual will find that this book resonates with important themes...
More at Kings of War.