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The  Future Land Warfare Report 2014  (FLWR) raises the prospect of the Australian Army establishing a combat advantage by putting technology  in  rather than  on  the soldier by fusing ‘biology with technology’ (para. 32).  Putting biomedical implants or artificial intelligence into soldiers’ bodies represents the final step in human-machine teaming.  To date, Army has been reluctant to explore invasive technology put  in  the soldier, instead preferring non-invasive technologies put  on  the soldier.  …

Despite all the hysteria and investment in ‘kit’, the soldier remains the single most important and factor in the projection of land power.   LWD1  puts the case far more eloquently, arguing technology is merely complementary to the decisive dimension, the human.  More bluntly, where technology is necessary but not sufficient for land power – soldiers are. If soldiers are the most critical element in the projection of land power then their optimisation is the most important investment Army can make in …

The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper (FPWP) presents a strategic assessment of the international environment in which Australia will seek to protect and promotes its national interest. The Paper expects a whole-of-government synchronisation of policies and programs to deliver the best outcome for Australia. FPWP has implications for Defence which is a critical and integral component of foreign policy. The FPWP has implications for Army as an integral part of Australian Defence Force (ADF). An appreciation …

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?-  Life of Brian When thinking about future problems, there is always the chance that somebody in the past has experienced a similar situation and written about it. The Australian Army finds itself somewhat sympathetic to the  Roman   Army  in that it needs to innovate in order to maintain an acceptable level of …

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Lady Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings Our test must not be, “Have we changed?” It must be, “Have we changed enough?” GEN George W. Casey Jr, US Army Chief of Staff The fundamental challenge to national security is the management of change in order to reduce risk using a strategy that helps to deal with  uncertainty . The role of the military is essential for securing national defence particularly when it involves …

“Demography is a useful lens for understanding national security because population is intimately linked to resources, and resources are related to both capabilities and conflict. Additionally, demographic projections can be useful for contingency planning than economic or technological projections because there is less uncertainty.” Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba (author of The Future Faces of War: Population and National Security) “Defence will be required to make significant personnel policy changes…to account …

We do not keep security establishments merely to defend property or territory or rights abroad or at sea. We keep the security forces to defend a way of life. Dwight D. Eisenhower , 20 May 1954       We need an adequate  d efense , but every arms dollar we spend above adequacy has a long-term weakening effect upon the nation and its security. Dwight D. Eisenhower , Waging Peace What then is the overall strategic concept which we should inscribe today? It is nothing less than the safety and welfare, the …

A nation is secure to the extent to which it is not in danger of having to sacrifice core values, if it wishes to avoid war, and is able, if challenged, to maintain them by victory in such a war. Walter Lippmann We are living in a world where international relations display increasing complexity, interactivity, and unpredictability. There is wide acceptance of the view that security is fundamentally about protecting our way of life; yet, in practice, national security in the context of Australia addresses …

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers exciting opportunities for Army; however, there are also significant limitations. One such limitation is the inherent biases.  AI systems  are only as good as the input data, and outcomes can be corrupted by ‘bad data’ that contains implicit racial, gender or ideological biases. There are more than  180 human biases , each of which can affect how decisions are made by the coder, and subsequently by the machine. Like bias in human society, the bias in AI must be actively …

The first part of this blog  focused on the risks of human bias inadvertently coded into AI. Part 2 explores the opportunities of AI to support Human Resource (HR) planning and management. One such opportunity is in preparing for, and adapting to, the disruptions associated with workforce trends such as the  transient (or contingent)  workforce. The exact number of transient workers in Australia is unknown, however, most estimates place the number at  around 30%  of the workforce and growing. No doubt an …