Search

With the release of Force 2030, the 2009 Defence White Paper, the Australian Government has clearly set the ADF onto the path of a maritime strategy. With this development, Australia has joined many great states—from the Athenians to the Americans—who have pursued maritime strategies to their benefit. While the ADF does have a history of pursuing maritime strategy that arguably dates back to the landings at Gallipoli, most of its recent strategic thought has dealt with the requirements of Continental …

Periodically the US military is host to a robust, heated, and sometimes painful debate on the future character of war. By contrast, the most striking thing about debate within the Australian Army is its near total absence. The Army, it appears, is unable or unwilling to debate openly about either its own future or the future of war. For an organisation that prides itself on its professionalism, this is a damning conclusion. This LWSC Working Paper asks the question why this the case? In doing so, it …

The purpose of the concept series is to explore ideas about warfare, particularly those ideas that may improve how the ADF goes about it. The concept series therefore supports the functions of force design and force development. Each volume in the series will address a single bounded problem. by Colonel Chris Smith and Dr Albert Palazzo. The Australian Government intends to acquire land-based strike capabilities in the 2020s. While these sorts of capabilities are not new to many of the armies of the world, …

Australia is in the midst of what some have described as an Amphibious Renaissance. Not since the Second World War has the Royal Australian Navy had an amphibious capability of the scale provided by the new Canberra class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) vessels: HMA Ships  Canberra and Adelaide. The Australian Army too is improving its amphibious clout, most evidently by its re-roling of 2nd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR) from a line infantry unit to a specialist pre-landing force. …

With respect to their cities, later on, at an era of increased facilities of navigation and a greater supply of capital, we find the shores becoming the site of walled cities, and the isthmuses being occupied for the purposes of commerce and defence against a neighbour. [i] Thus wrote the Athenian, Thucydides, some two thousand years ago. Describing the geography, the demography and military status quo before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, he noted the particular situation of urbanisation along …

This paper argues that, despite being the world’s largest island, the greatest paradox of Australia’s existence is that the country lacks a maritime consciousness to guide defence policy. National development has been marked by several historical characteristics which have created an ingrained culture of sea-blindness. These include a long tradition of maritime dependence on great powers; the growth of a martial cult centred on Anzac; a schism between continental and expeditionary approaches in strategic …

This paper argues that, despite being the world’s largest island, the greatest paradox of Australia’s existence is that the country lacks a maritime consciousness to guide defence policy. National development has been marked by several historical characteristics which have created an ingrained culture of sea-blindness. This paper argues that, despite being the world’s largest island, the greatest paradox of Australia’s existence is that the country lacks a maritime consciousness to guide defence policy. …

This paper examines the development of Australian Army doctrine from the end of the Vietnam War in 1972 to the publication of Land Warfare Doctrine 1,  The Fundamentals of Land Warfare  in March 1999. It analyses the rise of Army doctrine for continental defence operations in the 1970s and dissects the trend towards low-level conflict in the 1980s. The paper looks closely at the logic behind the Army in the 21st Century (A21) Review and the Restructuring of the Army (RTA) initiative in the 1990s. The …

This paper uses a historical case study of the Ambon disaster of 1942 to try to determine lessons for the development of Australia's maritime concept of strategy in the early 21st century. The paper examines how, in 1941–42, Australia embarked on the strategy of a forward observation-line, using troops to secure bases for air forces in the northern archipelagos. The failure of this strategy is viewed through the lens of the Ambon disaster of February 1942. The study examines how, with respect to defending …

This monograph analyses modern land power through examining the continental school of strategy that emerged in early 19th-century Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The continental school of strategy is important because it has provided the essential knowledge for the theory and practice of land power over the past two centuries. Many of the continental school's principles continue to remain fundamental to an understanding of the use of ground forces in the early 21st century. The argument advanced …