The Battlefield Blog has a new Road to Battlefield 4 feature with a look at the return of Commander Mode to the military shooter series. They offer a look at the way Commander Mode worked in BF2 and discuss how it will work in BF4, sheepishly noting it is coming "back to the battlefield where it belongs, just as the community so many times has reminded me." This includes similarities to BF2 as well as changes, and there is a lot of detail to digest, but this part offers an overview:

In Battlefield 4, one of Lead Multiplayer Designer Thomas Andersson’s main goals was to create more Commander vs. Commander gameplay (similar to what can be seen in RTS games) than we’ve had before in the series. We also wanted to make it accessible on many platforms. When we had the technology to do real-time 3D and bring the hectic Battlefield to the Commander’s screen, we knew we wanted to focus on that and give the Commander live feedback on his actions in-game. More importantly, we wanted the Commander to be able to see his teams’ actions so the Commander could better support them.

We also decided to make the very important change of making the role of Commander a full-time job. There is no possibility of going between 1st person and Commander Mode like in BF2. We wanted to ensure the Commander is dedicated to supporting the whole team, not just themselves. We all remembered the BF2 “Commander supporting himself while in a tank ignoring his team” worst case scenario, and that’s something we wanted to avoid happening again.

Finally, we wanted to bring Commander Mode to mobile platforms. We made sure the mobile versions of it were on par with console and PC versions, to ensure any Commander can effectively support their team even when they’re away from home.