Search

An introduction to the One Defence Capability System 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 (LCD) over the last 20 months, in helping the Chief of Army (CA) to manage the capability provided by the Australian Army. The first post introduced the series and outlined the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) fundamental inputs to capability (FIC). [i] It highlighted how the 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS 24) heralded …

  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-316-62369-5, 344 pp Written By : Brian N Hall Reviewed By : Chris Roberts   The thrust of Communications and British Operations on the Western Front, 1914-1918 is that communication systems are at the heart of command and control, and those employed by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) at each stage of the war had a profound effect on the ability of British commanders to control operations. In addressing this matter, Brian N. Hall seeks to …

  Militaries worldwide are embracing machines with varying degrees of automation and autonomy. [1] However, ensuring that machines pioneered in industry and academia meet the needs and constraints of military users remains challenging. One core challenge is that machines are frequently conceived and developed as standalone systems, whilst their military use increasingly entails operation in human-machine teams. To be effective in human-machine teaming (HMT), machines must be capable of recognising and …

  Penguin Books, 2015, New York, ISBN: 9780143107446, 519 pp RRP: $37.99 (softcover) Author: Jean Lartéguy Reviewed By: Anastasia Easton First published in 1960, Jean Lartéguy’s The Centurions chronicles the experiences of a group of French paratroopers who survive imprisonment in Indochina during the First Indochina War and return to France before later deploying to Algeria in military operations against the National Liberation Front. Having himself served in North Africa and Korea with the French Free …

Essays in Honor of Colin S Gray   Air University Press , 2022, 233 pp ISBN: 9781585663217 Written By : Donovan C Chau Reviewed By : Gabrielle Taylor   There is one name more synonymous with the modern study of strategy – Colin Gray. Indeed, he was one of his generation's most influential strategic thinkers who profoundly affected how scholars and practitioners understand war, strategy, and military education.  Strategy Matters: Essays in Honor of Colin S Gray , edited by Donovan C Chau, is both a tribute …

Jutland and British Naval Command   Penguin , 2015, 720 pp ISBN: 9780141980331 Author: Andrew Gordon Reviewer: James Davis   Note from the Director, Australian Army Research Centre: With the release of the 2025 Chief of Professional Army Study Guide, now is an opportune time for Defence’s senior leaders to reflect on the books within that Guide which have had the greatest impact upon their development as military professionals. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to BRIG James Davis for …

Collective contributions to future land power   As we argued in an  earlier post , if recent operations such as Anode, Sovereign Borders and the response to MH17 are any indication, Army and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are likely to provide important collective contributions to land power into the future. While government policy may be pursued through the formation of joint agency headquarters with a continuance of relatively uninterrupted activities along existing departmental lines (e.g. …

Lieutenant-General A.G.L. McNaughton and the Canadian Army, 1939-1943   University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2011, 416 pp 2021 Paperback Reprint ISBN: 1487541023 Author : John Nelson Rickard Reviewed By : Jordan Beavis   Few figures within Canadian military history are as divisive as Lieutenant-General Andrew ‘Andy’ McNaughton. Differing interpretations of his personality, career, and abilities abound. [1] Yet a wide breath of historians are able to agree on one fact – that his replacement as Commander of …

History, Politics and International Relations   London, Routledge, 2023, pp 234 ISBN: 9781032117171 Editors : Bridget Brooklyn, Benjamin T. Jones, and Rebecca Strating Reviewed By : Pearl Nunn   Comprehensive yet accessible, challenging and probing; Australia on the World Stage is the ideal introduction to Australian foreign relations from before colonisation to the twenty-first century. The three co-editors include: Bridget Brooklyn, lecturer in Australian history at Western Sydney University and …

Conceptual Reframing of the Operational Level of War The traditional conceptual model that divides war into strategic, operational, and tactical levels remains influential within Western military doctrine. While strategic decisions shape political aims, the tactical level encompasses direct battlefield engagements. Between these extremes lies the operational level of command, tasked with linking strategic intent to tactical actions. [1] Recently, this operational level has come under scrutiny, particularly …