Book Review: Mission Command in the Israel Defense Forces edited by Brig. General (Ret.) Gideon Avidor

About:

Mission Command in the Israel Defense Forces edited by Brig. General (Ret.) Gideon Avidor is a collection of essays written by IDF officers. General Avidor has participated in several wars in the armored division, as well as holding several command posts. In addition he was the IDF Attaché to Singapore, Australia, Papua-New Guinea, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

• Publisher : University of North Georgia
  
• Language : English
• Paperback : 388 pages
• ISBN-10 : 1940771765

My rat­ing for Mission Command in the Israel Defense Forces — 4
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Thoughts:

Unquestionably the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has relied heavily on mission command since its creation. In Mission Command in the Israel Defense Forces, Brig. General (Ret.) Gideon Avidor puts together a who’s who of Israeli acting officers writing about their experiences, and what’s more, the lessons they learned.

Many of essays are written about lessons gained from personal experience. What’s more, many of the authors are gathering lessons about Command and Control (C2) as lower ranking officers. Another key point is that the IDF is chiefly a western style/Prussian military force, significantly emphasized in the essays.

To be sure, it was interesting to read about how C2 came to the IDF since its inception. Particularly interesting were the often referenced writings of Erwin Rommel about C2. Those essays certainly shows a passion for the subject without prejudice.

In particular interesting was the last section, Mission Command Over the Horizon. This section emphasized the mission command culture in the information age, a fascinating subject.

I enjoyed reading this book, it was interesting showing compelling evidence for the implementation of C2. The personal stories, lessons learned which impacted the commanders’ viewpoints surely are a highlight of these essays.

Contributing Authors:

Dr. Eitan Shamir

Admiral Ze’ev Almog

Colonel Shay Shabtai

Dr. Dov Glazer

Lt. General Haim Laskov

Maj. General Israel Tal

Maj. General Doron Rubin

Lt. General Motta Gur

Lt. General Moshe Ya’alon

Colonel Yizhak Ronen

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Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books