Mission Command in the Age of Sail

Abstract

Mission command is a command-and-control philosophy characterized by trust between senior and junior leaders and independent execution of orders based around a common understanding of purpose and intent - an extremely challenging and relevant challenge in an age of vulnerable, and increasingly relied on, communication networks. This paper proposes an analytical framework for both historians and modern practitioners to use when studying the age of sail in in order to produce useful lessons for applying mission command in today's great power competition. It then uses that framework to analyze a case study from the Napoleonic wars.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 29, 2021
Accession Number
AD1134204

Entities

People

  • Joshua D. Weiss

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Case Studies
  • Command And Control
  • Environment
  • Families (Human)
  • Foreign Policy
  • Geography
  • Governments
  • Islands
  • Language
  • Law
  • Military History
  • Psychology
  • Revolutions
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • West Indies

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control