Gideon Avidor

Mission Command in the Israel Defense Forces is a collection of articles/essays about the concept of "mission command" as opposed to other command and control approaches to military action, whether in training or in actual war. The various chapters are autored by different individuals and, as one might imagine, the end product is very uneven in its quality. Many of the articles consist of almost incomprehensible word salads that are designed to sound euridite, but actually communicate very little about the topic at hand. A few articles are atually interesting and provide some insight into the concept of mission command, but for the most part the book was a hard read.… (altro)

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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.

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.… (altro)