Threat Strategy and Concepts The career management agency is engaged with Officers and senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) about their placement for Career Management Cycle 2026. Some will find themselves coming to Land Capability Division within Army Headquarters for the first time. I was in the same position as you, two years ago. The aim of this series of posts on the Land Power Forum is to pass on what I have learned about the role of Land Capability Division over the last 12 months, in helping the …

Capability is a Team Sport – The Committee System   Part One in this series of Land Power Forum posts introduced some capability definitions, and highlighted how deteriorating strategic circumstances have changed the strategy that guides ADF capability development. It also provided some examples of the process underway to transform the Australian Army into one focused on littoral manoeuvre capable of control of strategic land position with long-range strike capabilities. This post will discuss the …

Conflict and Cooperation in Space   Columbia University Press , New York, 2014, 193 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780231159128 Author : James Clay Moltz Reviewed By : Steven Henry   James Clay Moltz’s Crowded Orbits: Conflict and Cooperation in Space is an insightful examination of the challenges and opportunities in the space domain, making it essential reading for Defence space professionals, and those seeking to understand this critical domain better. The book leverages the ‘congested, contested and competitive’ …

  University Press of Kansas , Lawrence, 2016, 267 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780700622214 eBook ISBN: 9780700622221 Author : Stephen R. Taafe Reviewed By : Chris Roberts   MacArthur’s Korean War Generals is a study of command under adverse conditions. Set within a narrative of the United States (US) Eighth Army’s operations during the first year of the Korean War, Stephen R. Taaffe examines the character, command styles, and performance of the twenty-one men who led that army, its three corps and seven divisions …

The British Army's Preparations for War 1902-1914   Helion , Warwick, 2018, 235pp Hardback ISBN: 9781911512851 Paperback ISBN: 9781804515686  Author : Simon Batten Reviewed By : Chris Roberts   The subject of the British Army's reform and preparations prior to the Great War has received little serious study. Further, much of what has been written in general histories has been simplistic and derogatory based on shallow research, ill-founded assumptions or deliberate misinformation. Two notable exceptions …

Fifty Years of Service   Edited by William A Taylor University Press of Kansas , 2023, 344 pp Hardcover ISBN 9780700635382 Paperback ISBN 9780700634811 eBook ISBN 9780700634828 Reviewed by Brian Washam 1968 was a tumultuous year for the United States as the unpopular Vietnam War reached a crescendo with North Vietnam launching the Tet Offensive. Though a military victory for American and South Vietnamese forces, the American public watched the offensive play out live on the news. They concluded that the …

Delivering Effective Partner Force Capacity Building   Routledge Press , Essex, 2021, 116 pp Paperback ISBN 9780367766405 Authors : Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds Reviewed By : James Bryant   Some authors just make good sense. Reflective, reasonable and rational, with no particular ideological axe to grind, and transparent in how they arrive at their conclusions. In this reviewer’s opinion, Jack Watling is quite simply one of the most lucid, clear and insightful analysts on modern war on land. An …

  Introduction As the world lurches from one crisis to another, lessons learned from past crises are easily forgotten. In this vein, we can draw useful insights from Operation COVID-19 Assist (OCA) for future domestic operations and for their wider relevance to issues concerning operational readiness. Indeed, the shifting strategic climate referenced in the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) begs the question whether the Australian Defence Force (ADF) should be involved in a domestic emergency on the scale of …

Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence   by Paul Scharre W.W. Norton , 2023, 473 pp Hardcover ISBN 9780393866865 Paperback ISBN: 9781324074779 REVIEWED BY: John Nash   There are few hotter topics in military and strategic studies (and economics, technology, and more) than artificial intelligence (AI). Like with all new technology, commentary runs from the hyperbolic to the scornful. Finding the true promise is often difficult, and perhaps especially so with as polarising a technology as AI, not least …

American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict   by Elbridge A. Colby Yale University Press , 2021. pp 384 Hardcover ISBN: 0300256434 Paperback ISBN: 0300268025 Reviewed By : Courtney Stewart   Since its 2021 release, Elbridge Colby’s The Strategy of Denial remains a critical contribution to defence strategists grappling with the evolving complexities of China’s growing assertiveness, great power competition in the Indo-Pacific and the role of allies within these dynamics. The Strategy of Denial argues …