On Operations: Operational Art and Military Disciplines

Friedman traces the developmental history of military staffs and concepts of the operational level of war and operational art from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day, considering how military staff organisation has manifested in Prussia / Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States over time. Based on this analysis, On Operations argues that the operational level of war is fundamentally flawed and should be rejected, proposing alternate methods of staff organisation to be explored in the future. Well-researched and thought-provoking, On Operations poses important questions about how best military staffs manage the complexity of modern military operations, and whether their current structure best allows them to do so.