Resolving the Enigma. Thomas Jefferson and the Navy Reconsidered, 1774-1807

Mission command is a command-and-control philosophy characterized by trust between senior and junior leaders and independent execution of orders based around a common understanding of purpose and intent - an extremely challenging and relevant challenge in an age of vulnerable, and increasingly relied on, communication networks. This paper proposes an analytical framework for both historians and modern practitioners to use when studying the age of sail in order to produce useful lessons for applying mission command in today's great power competition. It then uses that framework to analyze a case study from the Napoleonic wars.