A timely history of the interplay between politics and military operations Command is the history of our time GuardianMilitary command has been reconstructed and revolutionized since the Second World War by nuclear warfare smallscale guerrilla land operations and cyber interference. Freedman takes a global perspective systematically investigating its practice and politics since 1945 through a wide range of conflicts from the French Colonial Wars the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bangladesh Liberation War to North Vietnams Easter Offensive of 1972 the Falklands War the Iraq War and Russias wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. By highlighting the political nature of strategy Freedman shows that military decisionmaking cannot be separated from civilian priorities and that commanders must now have the sensibility to navigate politics as well as warfare.