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While many elements of von Clausewitz’s seminal work  On   War  are entrenched within most Anglo-Saxon military doctrines, practices and methodologies for strategic planning, none have taken such a grip upon military institutions as his ‘centres of gravity’ precept. American military academia in particular has invested significant time and resources into debating the value of the centre of gravity. This is problematic because the concept continues to appear questionable in both application to real world …

Building on BEERSHEBA: The Future Army.   Army’s Plan Beersheba, currently being implemented, has changed Army’s force structure to provide a wider range of ready, sustainable land force capabilities. … Building on Beersheba …

Israel’s is a state of continuous conflict, frequently of the armed variety, and not uncommonly achieving levels of violence that qualify as war. Significant spikes in that level of violence have occurred several times during the past decade alone. These include – but are by no means limited to – the Second Lebanon War (July-August 2006), Operation Cast Lead (December 2008-January 2009), and Operation Protective Edge (July-August 2014).  The third of these constitutes the focus of this study while the two …

In 2007, a number of events and ideas combined to initiate improvements to the Australian Army's land force projection. By 2008, the Adaptive Army initiative was one of the most significant structural reforms since the Hassett Review recommended the establishment of the Army's functional command system in the early 1970s. The Army was not only strengthening its capability and capacity to generate land forces for the defence of the Australian homeland, but also streamlining the challenging process of …

In late 1999 Australia assumed leadership of a significant regional military coalition operation in East Timor with the support of the international community. In the aftermath of the Cold War, ‘one– off' coalition operations to enforce peace and restore stability are the most common cause of overseas deployments by any military force. Whether for low-level military support operations or warfighting, it is extremely unlikely that any legitimate military operation overseas will be unilaterally mounted by …

The deployment of an International Force to East Timor on 20 September 1999 under the command of Major General Peter Cosgrove marked an important step in international peace enforcement in the Asia-pacific. For the first time Australia provided lead-nation command to a significant multinational force comprising twenty-two contributing countries - including many regional powers. Providing the largest contingent and assuming the main responsibility for mounting and supporting the operation, Australia made a …

As the Hardened and Networked Army comes into being at the start of the 21st century, it is useful to reflect on previous periods of great change in the Australian Army's proud history. Once such period is ‘mechanisation', where the horse power that moved troops, artillery, logistics and engineering support gave way to tanks, armoured cars, trucks and motorcycles, all in the space of two decades. There is much to learn today, on the eve of the era of network-enabled operations, about the impact new …

Since the spectacular terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001, military professionals, scholars and policy makers have engaged in a spirited debate as to whether we witnessed an epochal shift in the nature of warfare. Notwithstanding the enormity and depravity of the 9/11 attacks, they did not herald an unprecedented new age of warfare. We are indebted to Clausewitz for the insight that the sustained application of mass violence is generally directed to a political end. Guerrilla …

In a world of complex war and unconventional threats 'amongst the people', of demographic and budgetary constraints and rapidly evolving technology, how does the Army situate itself to fulfil its obligations to the Australian Government? In recent times, the Army has simultaneously conducted high-intensity warfighting, peacekeeping deployments and counterinsurgency operations - and the foreseeable future suggests more of the same. The 2006 Chief of Army's Exercise, a biennial conclave of Army's Senior …

Perceptions of Afghanistan have been dominated by stereotypes. The country has been seen as a mountainous, untouched, inhospitable land, populated by an independent and ferocious people who had a well deserved reputation for stubborn resistance to invaders. This stereotype seemingly unravelled when the US-led Coalition swept across the country in late 2001, defeated the Taliban, and replaced its fundamentalist regime with a democratic government. Unlike in the past, the people of Afghanistan greeted the …