Jjorg Muth Command Culture Summary

Jörg Muth was born in Germany; he obtained his doctorate in military history in the United States, at the University of Utah. Besides, the Command Culture, Jörg Muth is the author of a dissertation about the Prussian Army during the epoch of Frederick the Great, and other articles on German military history of the 20th century.

Command Culture is a provocative book. It stimulates screeches of indignation from some readers and indignant admiration from others closely familiar with the US Army and the German Army. Yet, before going into further details about the content of the book, it is important to know that, even though, the author of the book is of German origin, the content of Command Culture is unpretentious, well balanced and based on

Mr. Muth argues that the military education and training systems in Germany were established and updated following the maxima “Train as you fight”. However, in the United States, according to the author, there did not exist such an approach. As a result, the U.S. military education and training systems existed in a narrow-minded environment without considering the methods on how fighting was done during the respective era. The author argues that the U.S. Army leadership failed to cognize that the tutelage of young officers should be farther reaching in its curriculum than the mathematical, engineering and other technical courses that by tradition had formed the substance of cadet studies at West Point. Another important field, in which the U.S. Army has failed, according to the author, is that of leadership. According to the author, leadership concept is a value that the U.S. Army has never tried

Muth are actual even nowadays. These attributes are Leadership and critical thinking. Leadership was an essential ability for the ancient and modern leaders. For that reason, the description and the importance given to leadership by Mr. Muth applies even nowadays, because regardless of the fact that the nature of war changes, yet, commanders will still have to accomplish their mission and lead their people in the best possible manner. In addition to leadership, critical thinking is another attribute discussed by Mr. Muth. Mr. Muth argues that leaders utilized their critical thinking abilities to analyze, elucidate, and evaluate strategic, operational, and tactical problems of all types. The same principle applies to the great military thinkers nowadays. Officers, even nowadays, have to prepare plans, test them and make the necessary adjustments as circumstances change. At the end of the day, leadership and critical thinking are all about solving complex bad-structured, concurrent, complications and to be able to cooperate with subordinates in the most efficient and tactful