Command and control (C2) is fundamental to military practice, yet no one can clearly define what it is. That is not a minor flaw. It reflects a deeper uncertainty about what command itself means. This problem is approached by examining competing definitions and deeper conceptions of C2, the persistent tension between centralisation and decentralisation, and how these dynamics are reflected in doctrine and historical cases.
At its core, C2 reflects a tension between the desire to control and the need to act. Developments in communications technology have not resolved this tension. They have intensified it. Increased connectivity expands the possibility of control, while increasing the complexity of coordination and the fragility of decision-making. This is not new, but it is now more visible and more acute. Current approaches lean towards explicit communication and systemic coordination, in part because they offer the promise of control. Control is measurable, visible, and appears achievable. Command is not. It depends on judgement, trust, and the willingness to act under uncertainty. The result is a tendency to substitute control for command, creating forces that are busy, connected, and informed, but less able to decide and act. Greater connectivity is therefore not solving the problem of command. It is changing it, and in many cases making it worse. Effective C2 does not depend on expanding systems of control, but on simplifying them. This requires reasserting command as a human activity—grounded in judgement, enabled by shared understanding, and resilient to the absence of information.
James Dutton is a Royal Marines officer with 18 years’ service, specialising in joint operations, military strategy, and policy. As a Hudson Fellow at CCW he is researching the impact of modern communication technologies on the conveyance of military intent and its execution in practice, exploring how changes in communications technology affect command, control, and decision-making. His operational and staff experience spans a range of UK defence and multinational contexts, with particular interest in how armed forces adapt command structures to meet evolving technological and strategic challenges.
