Social Navigation and the Emergence of Leadership: Tactical Command in the IDF Ground Forces in the Second Lebanon War

Based on a conceptual framework for analyzing social navigation, this article suggests looking at military leadership in processual terms: at how leadership is something that emerges in situations marked by continuous trial and error not only between commanders and subordinates but between them and a host of other significant others all within the changing social environment of the immediate circumstances of battle and the wider organizational backdrop. We show how leadership involves the socially situated rationales involved in leading people in the context of war. There are two reasons for using the case of this war. First, times of crisis are fruitful points within which to examine organizations. A sudden move between modes of military action means that many of the taken-for-granted characteristics of the military are suddenly much more visible. Second, the social and cultural contexts of war-making have changed with new emphases on force protection and casualty aversion and the transparency of military to external monitoring so that this case is a good example through which to examine how developments impinge on leadership. The study is based on interviews with thirty-six Israeli commanders—between the levels of platoon and battalions—that participated in combat in the Second Lebanon War.