Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-574) and index.

Command as politics -- Supreme commander : Truman and MacArthur -- The fury of the legions : the French army in Indochina and Algeria -- Keeping control : the Cuban missile crisis -- The very model of insubordination : Ariel Sharon and Israel's wars -- Civil war : the surrender of East Pakistan -- Orders from on high : responses to North Vietnam's 1972 offensive -- Command in theatre : the Falklands campaign -- Dictator as supreme commander : Saddam Hussein -- Command in a fragile state : Guevara, Kabila and the Congo -- Command in a faltering state : the Russian invasion of Chechnya -- Too many cooks : Kosovo in 1999 -- From hybrid conflict to all-out war : Russia fights Ukraine -- The war on terror : the battle of Tora Bora -- A tale of two surges : Iraq 2006-7 -- War among the people : fighting the Taliban and Isis -- Past, present and future of command.