Explaining Command Style

Command style is crucial to military effectiveness. In modern warfare, a key component of command style is decentralization. The military effectiveness literature generally agrees that decentralization is a desirable trait. Why then would a military not adopt decentralization? I argue that the degree of centralization is primarily a function of prewar state decisions to build up trained manpower, and wartime losses. The larger the gap between the state’s trained manpower at the beginning of the war and its ultimate land force needs, the more likely it is that the army will be compelled to embark on rapid mobilization. Since decentralization depends on sufficient trained manpower, this will imply more centralization. However early war differences will fade as losses mount. I illustrate this theory with respect to two combatants in World War II: Germany and the United Kingdom.