2016 Keogh Chair - Dr Jeffrey Record

Dr Record was invited to be Keogh Chair for 2016. During his chair, he delivered his keynote address on Defining Victory in Modern War to members of the Australian Defence Force, distinguished and other guests at the Australian Defence College, Canberra on 15 August 2016. It drew upon some of his key works including:

Ends, Means, Ideology and Pride: Why the Axis Lost and What We Can Learn from its Defeat.

The Axis powers lost Second World War because they were strategically incompetent.

The Atomic Bombing of Japan: A Retrospective Assessment.

The U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 was probably inevitable given the Japanese leadership’s refusal to accept American demands for unconditional surrender.

The Vietnam and Iraq Wars: Similarities, Differences and Insights.

The Vietnam and Iraq wars were fought in different times and places and against different enemies. However, the two wars shared critical similarities, both were failed American interventions based on false rationales.

Defining Victory in Modern War.

Defining victory in most wars is inherently difficult because most wars are fought for limited objectives and because most war aims can be unstable, multiple, intangible, undeclared, and even negative.

Dr Record's other publications include ten books and two dozen monographs, including: Making War, Thinking History: Munich, Vietnam, and Presidential Uses of Force from Korea to Kosovo; The Wrong War: Why We Lost In Vietnam; Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win; A War It Was Always Going to Lose; Why Japan Attacked the United States in 1941; and Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq.