Part 5 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 5, "Post Heroic: Command in the Nuclear World", is a summation of the book as well as a look into the future or warfare and its progression.

Keegan covers the post heroic standard by investigating the Imperatives of Kinship, Prescription, Sanction, Action, and Example as well as the Validation of Nuclear Authority.

Each leader's motives and tactics are re-examined as are their priorities. Keegan says, "For much of man's known past, the heroic ethic, in some guise or other has characterized the style of government by which he has conducted his affairs in most quarters of the globe" (p. 350).

Keegan continues to make comparisons between the leaders mentioned as well as other great world leaders and those to come.

Keegan's final point is brilliant. Unlike those leaders who took it upon themselves to be heroic, or unheroic as the case may...