Reflections from the Chief of Army’s Honours Program In a previous blog , I wrote about the importance of maintaining a reflexive practice in our everyday lives. In an academic context, reflexive practice is the process that enables researchers to understand their biases and influences. I observed that this practice is necessary when undertaking qualitative research because it provides the researcher with insights into the potential for these biases and influences to distort their individual efforts at …

Laser Technology Applications in Critical Sectors: Military and Medical Journal of Electronic Voltage and Application – Jun 21 This article summarises laser technology applications in the military and medical sectors. A laser is a device that emits a focused beam of light by stimulating the emission of electromagnetic radiation. This article initially surveys the various contemporary applications of lasers and presents a timeline for developing this technology. It then outlines the various roles that …

Force Design Organizational transformation: Handling the double-edged sword of urgency Long Range Planning – Mar 21 Traditional change models require organisations to develop a wide sense of urgency. For example, for Defence the rapid growth of the threat from improvised explosive devices saw an equally rapid change in equipment, training, and tactics. Unfortunately, urgency tends to generate a more conservative mindset where people are more likely to seek incremental alteration and seek to reduce errors. …

Military Loyalty as a Moral Emotion Armed Forces and Society – Jul 21 Loyalty is one of the cornerstones of the ADF and its operation. It is ‘known’ to be essential; however, the concept of loyalty in a military setting remains understudied. The authors of this study layout a theoretically informed, empirically supported analysis of what loyalty actually means for soldiers. The authors discern three core themes from their study. The first is that reciprocity is a key component of loyalty. The personnel …

In Part 1 of this series , Dan Kealy drew attention to one of the great themes of urban warfare literature - that city fighting is uniquely, excessively bloody. This article charts the development of this theme from World War II to the present and argues that it manifests a core challenge to the achievement of successful urban operations – specifically, force protection. The dilemma of ‘prophylactic high explosive’ A recurring observation throughout urban warfare literature is that lessons have to be …

‘ Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire and threaten the  threatener ’ Fast forward to the year 2033 and Army has undergone unprecedented organisational transformation due to disruption realised by Intelligent Robots and Autonomous Systems ( iRAS ). The initial reticence to fully embrace these new technologies for the application of force was eventually substituted by an urgency to acquire it once nation states began operating first-generation iRAS during the late-2020s.   It was determined that   not …

The Effects of International Sanctions on Iran’s Military Spending: A Synthetic Control Analysis Defence and Peace Economics – Jul 21 Geoeconomics – the use of economic levers for strategic ends – is a reinvigorated topic in a time of strategic competition. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the effectiveness of sanctions for changing the political behaviour of targeted states, particularly due to the rise of grey-zone economic tactics. Here, Mohammad Reza Farzanegan investigates …

Military Responses to COVID-19, Emerging Trends in Global Civil-Military Engagements Review of International Studies – Jan 21 Militaries have a long history of participating in health initiatives both domestically and abroad. In this article, Fawzia Gibson-Fall maintains that the COVID-19 response is a pivotal moment in this continuum of military health engagements. She canvasses the roles that militaries have played in national responses to COVID-19 and identifies three emerging categories of engagement: …

The Geostrategic Relevance of the Black Sea in the Current Security Context Strategic Impact – Jan 21 This article provides an overview of the contemporary strategic significance of the Black Sea, a confined body of water with significant geopolitical complexity surrounding it. Bogdan Țuțuianu emphasises that the Black Sea has been a constant arena for increasing competition, expanding spheres of influences, deepening and perpetuating regional tensions, and destabilising actions. He highlights the lack of …

Thinking about How the ADF Recovers from the First Losses of War In war, mistakes are normal; errors are usual, information is seldom complete, often accurate, and frequently misleading. Success is won, not by personnel and materiel in prime condition, but by the debris of an organisation worn by the strain of campaign and shaken by the shock of battle. The objective is attained, in war, under conditions which often impose extreme disadvantages. It is in the light of these facts that the commander expects …