Although he took command of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the first shots were fired at Gettysburg, Union general George G. Meade guided his forces to victory in the Civil War's most ...pivotal battle. Commentators often dismiss Meade when discussing the great leaders of the Civil War. But in this long-anticipated book, Kent Masterson Brown draws on an expansive archive to reappraise Meade's leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg. Using Meade's published and unpublished papers alongside diaries, letters, and memoirs of fellow officers and enlisted men, Brown highlights how Meade's rapid advance of the army to Gettysburg on July 1, his tactical control and coordination of the army in the desperate fighting on July 2, and his determination to hold his positions on July 3 insured victory. Brown argues that supply deficiencies, brought about by the army's unexpected need to advance to Gettysburg, were crippling. In spite of that, Meade pursued Lee's retreating army rapidly, and his decision not to blindly attack Lee's formidable defenses near Williamsport on July 13 was entirely correct in spite of subsequent harsh criticism. Combining compelling narrative with incisive analysis, this finely rendered work of military history deepens our understanding of the Army of the Potomac as well as the machinations of the Gettysburg Campaign, restoring Meade to his rightful place in the Gettysburg narrative.
The armed forces of NATO, the foundation of military security in the collective and individual sense, have been, for years, constituting the determinants shaping their interoperability and ...effectiveness. Such actions are taken with varying intensity by all members also in terms of military leadership. The scope and comprehensiveness of these actions mainly oscillate around the perception of leadership in the context of the tool for shaping interpersonal relationships. The goal of the organizational context, which less attention is put to, is the proper section and training of the leaders, who are not accidentally appointed, but were chosen on the basis of a thoughtful process. Therefore, in the area of leadership considered an important organizational phenomenon, a variety of transformations are carried out, which are intended to improve leadership and the units implementing them, so it is used for the benefit of the armed forces. The Polish armed forces have also undertaken such actions. Their scope is to be based on a broad analysis of leadership in conducted in 2018. However, ensuring the optimization of further action requires the recognition of the most significant leadership transformations that have been implemented by the Alliance’sleading armed forces and are a guarantor of substantially higher quality of military leadership. These transformations are described and discussed in this paper.
In 1808 Napoleon dominated Europe, but the peace was not to survive for long. Todd Fisher continues his detailed account of the Napoleonic Wars with Austria's attack against Napoleon in 1809. Despite ...being defeated at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon rallied his forces and emerged triumphant at Wagram. With glorious victory behind him Napoleon now turned his attention to Russia and invaded in 1812. Yet the army was not the Grand Armee of old, and even the capture of Moscow availed him nothing. The foe remained elusive, the decisive battle remained unfought. This book tells the full story of the now legendary retreat from Moscow, as the fighting force that had vanquished Europe perished in the snows of the Russian winter.
George Washington became president of the newly formed United States just as the French Revolution erupted in 1789, a moment that would pave the way for Napoleon and his eventual empire. In this ...momentous year, the Americans consolidated the gains of their rebellion, and the French embarked upon a more radical transformation of their own. Though strikingly different, the American and French revolutions gave rise to Washington and Napoleon, two wildly popular generals who led new forces on battlefields across their respective territories. Matthew J. Flynn and Stephen E. Griffin’s military analysis of these two men includes the political context of their lives. As a military equal of Napoleon, Washington posed just as great a threat to the life of the fledging American republic that Napoleon did to representative government in France. Both generals assumed their offices with a similar purpose in mind: transferring sovereignty from the people to an individual leader. Yet, Washington chose the republican path, while Napoleon sank into despotism. Flynn and Griffin show how leadership is shaped by the society that governs it, thus highlighting the differences between Washington and Napoleon. The authors demonstrate that the two were equally ambitious and that each chose paths to power reflecting their turbulent political times. In this fascinating book, the characters of these two great generals, statesmen, and icons emerge to show the divergence of their towering geniuses.
The Unquiet Frontier Grygiel, Jakub J; Mitchell, A. Wess
2017, 2016., 20170815, 2016, 2017-08-15
eBook
From the Baltic to the South China Sea, newly assertive authoritarian states sense an opportunity to resurrect old empires or build new ones at America's expense. Hoping that U.S. decline is real, ...nations such as Russia, Iran, and China are testing Washington's resolve by targeting vulnerable allies at the frontiers of American power.The Unquiet Frontierexplains why the United States needs a new grand strategy that uses strong frontier alliance networks to raise the costs of military aggression in the new century.
Jakub Grygiel and Wess Mitchell describe the aggressive methods rival nations are using to test U.S. power in strategically critical regions throughout the world. They show how rising and revisionist powers are putting pressure on our frontier allies-countries like Poland, Israel, and Taiwan-to gauge our leaders' commitment to upholding the U.S.-led global order. To cope with these dangerous dynamics, nervous U.S. allies are diversifying their national-security "menu cards" by beefing up their militaries or even aligning with their aggressors. Grygiel and Mitchell reveal how numerous would-be great powers use an arsenal of asymmetric techniques to probe and sift American strength across several regions simultaneously, and how rivals and allies alike are learning from America's management of increasingly interlinked global crises to hone effective strategies of their own.
The Unquiet Frontierdemonstrates why the United States must strengthen the international order that has provided greater benefits to the world than any in history.
This book seeks to explore two working hypotheses: Firstly, that Napoleon's alleged military superiority in terms of skill and battlefield competence over his peers can be empirically quantified and ...proven. Secondly, that the results of Napoleonic warfare can be predicted by applying the theory of Contest Success Functions to these battles. To address these claims this book is organized into four sections: Theory: The first of the conceptual sections summarizes the theoretical underpinning behind the economical understanding of conflict. This so called 'second approach' and its merits are outlined and the history of these theoretical concepts is explained. Chapter three introduces the Ratio Contest Success Function (RCSF) put forth by Tullock and the Difference Contest Success Function (DCSF) employed by Hirshleifer, the concepts for predicting probabilities of success in conflict theory. History: The fourth chapter gives a brief report on warfare during the Napoleonic ages. A special emphasis lies on an analysis that evaluates if the key parameters have been homogenous over the time and what kind of technology was employed during these battles. The results are then compared with the demands of conflict theory. The fifth chapter then explicates the data set. The different variables that could be obtained are introduced and at last the scope of the further analysis is specified. This is done by picking the variables that can actually be used for an in-depth quantitative. Modelling: In the four chapters that deal with the actual modelling, the theory is applied to the historical data to yield the results we need to verify the working hypotheses. After the two different estimators used have been introduced in chapter six, the chapters seven and eight deal with utilising each of the estimators to answer these questions. The results from the estimates
are interpreted and are compared in chapter nine. In addition, chapter nine attempts to weigh the explanatory value of the two approaches and places them in the historical perspective. Résumé: Chapter ten answers comments on Napoleon's personal worth on the battlefield and applies the findings of the empirical work to three short case studies. The subsequent summary then merges the results of the whole study and concludes with follow-up questions for future research. Biographische Informationen Oberleutnant Diplom-Volkswirt Felix Christoph Lotzin was born in Hamburg in 1985. After his Vordiplom in Volkwirtschaftslehre at the University of Mannheim in 2006, he joined the army.Having completed his studies in Volkwirtschaftslehre, Politikwissenschaft and Geschichtswissenschaft at the Helmut-Schmidt-University in 2010, he is now a Diplom-Volkswirt. His already in early times formed fascination with the historical period of the liberation wars inspired him to calculate Napoleons military abilities utilizing econometric methods.
Focusing on the Triumviral period and the battle of Actium, this book offers a re-evaluation of Augustus' rise to power and its presentation in propaganda and ideology.
Hannibal MacDonald, Eve
2015, 2014, 2015-02-24
eBook
The life of the great Carthaginian general who marched into Rome during the Second Punic War is reexamined in this revealing and scholarly biography. Once of the greatest military minds of the ...Ancient World, Hannibal Barca lived a life of daring and survival, massive battles, and ultimate defeat. A citizen of Carthage and military commander in Punic Spain, he famously marched his war elephants and huge army over the Alps into Rome's own heartland to fight the Second Punic War. Yet the Romans were the ultimate victors. They eventually captured and destroyed Carthage, and thus it was they who wrote the legend of Hannibal: a brilliant and worthy enemy whose defeat represented military glory for Rome. In this groundbreaking biography, Eve MacDonald employs archaeological findings and documentary sources to expand the memory of Hannibal beyond his military career. Considering him in the context of his time and the Carthaginian culture that shaped him, MacDonald offers a complex portrait of a man from a prominent family who was both a military hero and a statesman. MacDonald also analyzes Hannibal's legend over the millennia, exploring how statuary, Jacobean tragedy, opera, nineteenth-century fiction, and other depictions illuminate the character of one of the most fascinating figures in all of history.
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