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“[I]f one is to understand ‘the great mystery’ one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the force.” Darth Sidious (Senator Palpatine) to Anakin Skywalker; Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi to Darth Vader; Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith Several converging debates hold a similar premise to the above quotes: war’s character …

It was bound to happen: the Australian cricketers have now been compared to diggers. ‘Australian values’, apparently mislaid by the Australian cricket team last month, are safely embodied in 'our Diggers’ according to Greg Sheridan in  The Australian , but who are these diggers? While athletes continue to maintain high individual profiles, 'diggers' are still morphed into one vaguely historical, khaki mass, and it is highly likely the public would be pressed to name one. Anzac Day is the time for talking …

A recent blog post on the  generalist vs specialist in the Army  debate, reminds us of the work of military sociologist  Charles Moskos  and his Institutional/Occupational thesis. In 1977, Charles Moskos, proposed the I/O thesis which explained how the American military was moving away from an institutional model to one which resembled an occupation. What he meant by that was that the modern military was demonstrating fewer features of an institution (like professional availability at all times, inability …

The  Chief of Army’s Land Forces Seminar 2018 (CALFS)  was held in Adelaide from 4-6 September and addressed the topic ‘The Application of Land Power in the Indo Pacific’. The Chief’s intent for the focus of the seminar was  strengthening partnerships and unlocking our collective potential  and this theme was explored by sixteen Australian and international speakers over four half-day sessions. These sessions are summarised below. All speakers agreed that the Indo-Pacific region is characterised by the …

This article by Director - AARC, Colonel Peter Connolly, was first published on  The Strategist  and is republished with kind permission of ASPI. As China’s national and international economic interests have steadily grown, so has the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to protect them. China’s expanding, social-media-savvy middle class now expects the military to protect the country’s citizens overseas. That expectation has been reinforced formally by the  strategic direction  for the PLA to ‘protect the …

This article by Director - AARC, Colonel Peter Connolly, was first published on  The Strategist  and is republished with the kind permission of ASPI. China’s growing military power has recently found expression in its popular culture. Highly nationalistic movies extol the virtues and capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army in a clear move to establish evacuation operations as the ‘new normal’. What does that mean for our region? Part 1  of this series explained how the development of China’s policy of …

Understanding aspects of political and sociological theory will help commanders at all levels balance the actions of their ‘strategic corporals’ with the perceptions of a domestic audience. In a  previous post , I looked at one way of analysing the place of armed forces in society through a sociological idea known as the Institutional/Occupational Thesis. This theory is relatively easy to test because it really only applies to one party—the military organisation—and you can test it on yourself!  Samuel P. …

This blog has been written by Patrick McMillan, a recent research intern at the Australian Army Centre. During his time at the AARC, he has had the opportunity to write and think about future challenges while in direct connection with leading military and academic thinkers in his topic area. The Chief of Army’s Strategic Guidance for 2019,  Army in Motion , highlights a rapidly changing operating environment for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). It also notes that ‘we must continuously anticipate and …

Power and energy, from a global technological perspective, is under pressure. The combination of global legislative pressure, industry disinvestment in internal combustion engine technology, decline in production, changing attitudes and demand will eventually constrain the internal combustion engine to bespoke usage if not extinction. For Army, at some point power and energy change will become less negotiable, and options taken for granted in the first quarter of the century may cease to be options in the …

In previous posts, I introduced two important contributors to military sociological theory:  Charles Moskos , who gave us the Institutional/Occupational Thesis which determines whether we are more aligned to the values of the organisation or our own professional interests; and  Samuel Huntington , who gave us the Social and Functional Imperatives, which determine whether we are governed by the requirements of the job or the interests of society. Today I introduce the third person in this useful trio: …