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The extraordinary story of the Australian campaign against the Japanese in New Guinea's Finisterre mountains in 1943-44 By Phillip Bradley Allen & Unwin, 2021, 328 Reviewed by LTCOL Katherine Old Named after Captain Robert ‘Shaggy Bob’ Clampett of the 2/27th Battalion, Shaggy Ridge is the location of one of the less renowned battles of the Australian military campaigns in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Shaggy Ridge is a commanding feature within the Finisterre mountains.  In 1943 it was the site of a main …

The impact of climate change is becoming more evident in Australia, leading to profound environment, social and economic impacts. 2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest year since records began in 1910, with 40% less rainfall than average across the nation, and the annual national mean maximum temperature at 2.09ºC above average. This hot, dry weather led to the devastating Black Summer bushfires, in which 33 people directly lost their lives (and hundreds more subsequently passed from smoke-related …

“The enemy will certainly not have the kindness to say how strong he is, what are his general designs, or what he is commissioned to do, and in what manner he will strive to attain his end.” Verdy du Vernois [1] This piece intends to describe one example of the historical challenge of joint warfare for Australia in its region. That is, where objectives may be characterised by the geographic boundaries of islands, with emphasis on the primacy of sea and air control, as a prelude to success in island-centric …

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 …