Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the research of command and control; and the organization of this book. Command and control is the exercise of authority and direction by a commander over assigned forces to accomplish a mission. Though it is defined in the military field, the concept is applicable to the intelligence field and the public sector. Traditionally, command and control is qualitatively studied by mainly discussing the leadership role and responsibility. In the traditional works, few studies exist in the structure analysis because most of command and control structures were hierarchy. However, the recent trend shows much more evolution in the structures. Now, many organizations have networked structure that does not have clear roles and responsibilities. To understand these amorphous structures, the recent command and control studies utilize diverse quantitative approaches such as social network analysis; and modeling and simulation. This chapter introduces the evolution of the command and control study from the traditional works to the recent trends. Further, this chapter introduces the presented case studies in this book, and this chapter discusses where the case studies belong to.