OPArt_cover2.qxd 10/30/06 2:36 PM Page 1 Allan English This book was written to complement The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — editor Context and Concepts, which was published by the Canadian Defence Academy Press in 2005. The contributors to The Operational Art — Leadership and Command include a serving Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), General Rick Hillier, and a former CDS who is now Chairman of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, General Raymond Henault. Other contributors to the book are practitioners of the operational art, academics and defence scientists. This volume contains theories and accounts of experience that are provided to help military professionals, particularly practitioners of the operational art, practise their vocation more effectively. Allan English Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page a Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page b Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page i The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives Leadership and Command Edited by Allan English Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page ii Copyright © 2006 Her Majesty the Queen, as represented by the Minister of National Defence. Canadian Defence Academy Press PO Box 17000 Stn Forces Kingston, Ontario K7K 7B4 Produced for the Canadian Defence Academy Press by 17 Wing Winnipeg Publishing Office. WPO30172 Cover Photo: Silvia Pecota Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication The operational art : Canadian perspectives : leadership and command / edited by Allan English. Issued by Canadian Defence Academy. Includes bibliographical references. Soft Cover ISBN 0-662-43220-7 Cat. no.: D4-3/2-2006E Hard Cover ISBN 0-662-43272-X Cat. No.: D4-3/2-2006-1E 1. Military art and science--Canada. 2. Canada--Armed Forces. 3. Canada--Armed Forces--Officers. 4. Operational art (Military science). 5. Command of troops. I. English, Allan D. (Allan Douglas), 1949- II. Canadian Defence Academy. III. Title: Leadership and command. UA600.O63 2006 355.30971 C2006-980116-9 Printed in Canada. 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword . .v Preface . .vii Introduction . .ix Chapter 1 The Masks of Command: Leadership Differences in the Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force . .1 Allan English Chapter 2 Canadian Naval Command Styles . .31 Richard H. Gimblett Chapter 3 Command in a Complex Battlespace . .55 Colonel Christian Rousseau Chapter 4 Establishing Common Intent: The Key to Co-ordinated Military Action . .85 Ross Pigeau and Carol McCann Chapter 5 We Fight as One? The Future of the Canadian Forces’ Joint Operations Group . .109 Colonel C. J. Weicker Chapter 6 Operational-Level Leadership and Command in the Canadian Forces: General Henault and the DCDS Group at the Beginning of the “New World Order” . .135 General R.R. Henault, Brigadier-General (Retired) Joe Sharpe, and Allan English Chapter 7 Command and Control Canadian Style: The New Medium-Power Dilemma . .163 Commander Kenneth P. Hansen Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CONT... Chapter 8 Command and Control During Peace Support Operations: Creating Common Intent in Afghanistan . .173 Howard G. Coombs and General Rick Hillier Chapter 9 The Loss of Mission Command for Canadian Expeditionary Operations: A Casualty of Modern Conflict? . .193 Major-General Daniel P. Gosselin Conclusion . .229 Contributors . .233 Index . .239 Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page v FOREWORD FOREWORD The Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) was created in 2002 to champion, govern and manage professional-development reform initia- tives in the Canadian Forces (CF). The CDA is also the body that will institutionalize and maintain the momentum behind these reforms, which contribute to the CF’s professional-development strategic objectives. Key among these objectives is fostering intellectual development and critical thinking within Canada’s military, and the transformation of the CF into a learning organization. “Professional development,” explained General Raymond Henault, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, “is at the heart of the profession of arms. The Canadian Defence Academy will play a vital role in the reform and transformation of our professional standards and competencies.” The publication of this book is an initiative under the strategic leadership writing project of the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute and should stimulate debate about the profession of arms in Canada. Readers are invited to join the debate and make their own contribution to military professionalism in this country. Major-General Paul Hussey Commander, Canadian Defence Academy THE OPERATIONAL ART v Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page vi Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page vii PREFACE PREFACE The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Leadership and Command was commissioned by the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute as part of its strategic leadership writing project, which is designed to compile a body of knowledge relating to Canadian military leadership (that is, past, present and future) that can be used by Canadian Forces educational and training institutions to generate effective military leaders, as well as educate the public. It is our intent that Canadian officers have the opportunity to learn from Canadian examples. After all, although our military culture and experience, for instance, is different from that of our close allies the Americans and the British, it is equally rich and distinctive. In this vein, The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Leadership and Command is a seminal work that comes on the heels of and complements the Canadian Forces College’s The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Context and Concepts. It examines arguably the most essential component of the operational art, namely, leadership and command. Importantly, its chapters are written by a wide array of authors who span the gamut from practitioner to theoretician. In the end, these diverse individuals with both practical experience and theoretical knowledge bring insight and depth to the discussion. I believe you will find The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Leadership and Command to be a stimulating addition to the Canadian Defence Academy Press collection. It deals with such dynamic topics as the differing leadership styles in the three distinctive environments, the complex operating environment, the evolution of combined and joint command structures, as well as leadership and command on expeditionary operations. This volume is sure to expand your knowledge and fuel the Canadian discourse on the operational art. Colonel Bernd Horn Director, Canadian Forces Leadership Institute THE OPERATIONAL ART vii Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page viii Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page ix INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Allan English Commissioned by the Canadian Forces Leadership Institute, The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Leadership and Command was written to complement The Operational Art: Canadian Perspectives — Context and Concepts, which was published by the Canadian Defence Academy Press in 2005 and based on work done by staff and students at the Canadian Forces College (CFC) in Toronto. Its purpose was to offer perspectives on distinct Canadian approaches to the operational art, based on our national and military culture and historical experience. Leadership and Command focuses on specific aspects, and arguably the most important aspects, of operational art: leadership and command. Given the nature of the topic, the contributions come not only from papers written by staff or students at CFC, but also from a more diverse group of authors. Therefore, this volume includes contributions by a serving Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), General Rick Hillier, and a former CDS who is now Chairman of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, General Ray Henault. Other military professionals, some of whom wrote their contributions while staff or students at CFC, bring further practitioners’ insights to leadership and command and the operational art. These practitioners’ insights are complemented by a new offering by two of Canada’s leading theoreticians of command, Ross Pigeau and Carol McCann from Defence Research and Development Canada, Toronto. The field of contributors is rounded out by Canadian academics whose fields of expertise are related to the subject of this book. In Chapter One, I begin by examining differences in leadership among the army, navy, and air force, based on differences in national and service cultures. I conclude that even in the unified Canadian Forces (CF), where a significant amount of training and education is conducted in a joint envi- ronment, leaders have different “masks of command” based on their expe- rience as junior officers in the Canadian Army, Navy or Air Force. These different masks of command can be distinguished by, among other things, varying proportions of “heroic” and “technical” styles of leadership. THE OPERATIONAL ART ix Operational Art_2.qxd 10/30/06 2:33 PM Page x INTRODUCTION Chapters Two to Four deal with theoretical aspects of leadership, command and the operational art. In Chapter Two, Richard Gimblett examines naval command and leadership, focussing on command styles found in the Canadian Navy. He argues that the nature of operations at sea defines many aspects of naval command and that national cultures and each navy’s experience also shape naval command styles. Gimblett concludes that the