Proconsuls: Delegated Political-Military Leadership from Rome to America Today

This book is a study of proconsulship, a form of delegated political-military leadership historically associated with the governance of large empires. Opening with a conceptual and historical analysis of proconsulship as an aspect of imperial or quasi-imperial rule generally, it surveys its origins and development in the late Roman Republic and its manifestations in the British Empire. The main focus is proconsulship in American history. Beginning with the occupation of Cuba and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, it discusses the role of General Douglas MacArthur in East Asia during and after World War II, the occupation of Germany (focusing on General Lucius Clay), and proconsular leadership during the Vietnam War and the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan at the turn of the twenty-first century. An additional chapter provides an assessment of the evolution of American political-military command and control and decision making after the end of the Cold War.

Table of Contents:
1. On proconsular leadership; 2. Roman origins; 3. Wood in Cuba; 4. The Philippines; 5. MacArthur in the Far East; 6. Clay in Germany; 7. Vietnam; 8. Clark in the Balkans; 9. Bremer in Iraq; 10. Petraeus in the Middle East; 11. American lessons.

About the Author :
Carnes Lord is Professor of Military and Naval Strategy in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, United States Naval War College. As a political scientist, his interests lie in international and strategic studies, national security organization and management, and political philosophy. Lord holds PhD degrees from Cornell University and Yale University and has taught political science at Yale University, the University of Virginia and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has held several senior positions in the United States government, including director of international communications and information policy on the National Security Council staff (1981–4), assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1989–91) and distinguished fellow at the National Defense University (1991–3). Lord is the author, among other works, of The Presidency and the Management of National Security (1988), The Modern Prince: What Leaders Need to Know Now (2003) and Losing Hearts and Minds? Strategic Influence and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Terror (2006).

Review :
'Lord sensitively and skilfully outlines a detailed blueprint for how such newly organized Defense Department proconsulships might avoid any resemblance to a colonial office or German general staff.' Victor Davis Hanson, Claremont Review of Books