Analysis of Military Leadership Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of Military Leadership - Article Example Therefore, managers need to adopt good leadership styles in order to ensure that respective organizations or sectors become successful, thus facilitating the achievement of set goals and objectives. An officer commanding a naval military ship needs to adopt an effective and appropriate leadership style in order to meet the goals of the entire crew thereby being regarded as successful in their mission. This is because it is the commanding officer who is looked upon to offer direction and give orders on the course of action to be taken by the junior officers. Therefore, in case poor decisions are arrived at due to weak leadership, the entire crew will fail and the blame for failure will entirely lie upon the commanding officer in charge (Labarre, 1999, p.1). In order to reduce chances of failure, a commanding officer will need to apply appropriate and effective leadership when commanding the juniors. First, a commander needs to concentrate on the purpose of the mission rather than focu sing on the chain of command (Labarre, 1999, p.1). This leadership style will ensure that the commander does not seek for obedience from the juniors. Instead, he or she seeks to ensure that every sailor performs exemplary in his or her duties, thus ensuring that the entire team emerges successful. For instance, there occur situations when something goes a mess yet the commander is not in reach to issue orders. In such situations, the juniors can rectify the situation instead of waiting for orders from the commander (Iskra, 2012, p.1). This will ensure that the overall performance of the team is good and nothing goes a mess while there are people on watch. Consequently, focusing on performance rather than command ensures that the junior members of the crew feel appreciated since they are assigned individual roles to play. Therefore, every member of the crew will acknowledge the work and role of other members, and thereby develop the urge and morale to work hard and emerge successfull y within the entire group (Earnhardt, 2007, p.1). Moreover, by concentrating on performance rather than showing obedience will reduce the tension among the juniors and the commander. This is because, in some situations, there are some junior members of the crew who do not like to be commanded, and thus do not feel secure when commanded. This might reduce their performance thereby lowering the overall performance of the entire crew. Consequently, some of the commanders might be arrogant and thereby bully their junior members. They might bully or mistreat the junior crewmembers for either personal grudge or misunderstanding. This kind of behavior may affect negatively on the morale and relations between the commander and the juniors thereby slowing performance (Earnhardt, 2007, p.1).

The solution to piracy off the coast of somalia lies on land not at Essay

The solution to piracy off the coast of somalia lies on land not at sea - Essay Example This is why, off the shores of Somalia, the threat of piracy has cast its frightening shadow. These waters being one of the international trade routes, the problem has become a head ache, not to the Somalis, but to global commerce. While trying to find solutions to this problem, all the focus has been on surveillance at sea. But this paper tries to refocus the whole issue upon the basic political realities of this nation which has become a constant breeding ground for pirates. The state of Somalia is located in the Horn of Africa, and is bordered on the west by Ethiopia, Kenya  in the southwest,  Djibouti  in the northwest,  while the  waters of the Gulf of Aden  lie to its north, and the Indian Ocean  bordering its eastern coastline. Somalia was well known during the time of the antiquities, when it had successful trade relations with the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon and many others2. Later in the 20th century, Somalia played an important role d uring Cold War, primarily under the Soviet influence. However, in the recent times the country has witnessed some of the worst civil wars, along with a rise in Islamic insurgency. Somalia’s present economic and political orders are in a complete state of disquiet, owing to the ceaseless civil conflicts. After 14 failed transitional governments, Somalia is now dubbed a â€Å"failed state.† Failed economic conditions and an unstable, volatile political order of this country, have forced many of its citizens to earn their livelihood through various illegal means. Of this, the maritime piracies off the high seas, near the Somalia coast, has turned into a major international problem, owing to increased instances of hijacking of large merchant ships by the Somali pirates, in a bid to earn ransom money. A common observation among social scientists has been that, â€Å"the Somali piracy ‘industry’ is a direct consequence of the 1991 collapse of the countryâ€℠¢s last functioning national government.†3 In this article, my attempt is to examine the background that has led to this increase in piracy off the coast of Somalia, to study the present situation of this piracy and the various reactions of the international communities and to offer viable solutions apart from the sea-based conventional solutions. This analysis will also discuss various workable solutions as suggested by various naval heads and other international organizations like the UNSC, NATO, and EUNAVFOR; all of which primarily advocate that, results of naval actions would not serve to be a permanent long term explication; as most of the experts feel that the solution to piracy off the coast of Somalia lies on land, and not at sea.4 Discussion Statistical data show that â€Å"there were 115 reported pirate attacks  off the coast of Somalia in 2008†¦[and]†¦of those attacks, 46 resulted in the seizure of a commercial vessel by Somali pirates. The average rans om for the release of hijacked vessels increased from $1 million US dollars in July of 2008, to $1.5 million by December.†5 These figures show the graveness of the problem, which is leading to serious implications on the future of trade and commerce, via the Gulf of Aden route. This route is used by, at an average count, almost 20000 ships annually, and records show that maximum number of merchant ships have been attacked by the Somali pirates in this region6. Owing to this risk many of the trading vessels have been forced to avoid this area and take a longer but