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As Daesh’s  so-called ‘Caliphate’ continues to fracture in the Middle East, Australia and its neighbours must be prepared for further attacks like Marawi in South East Asia (SEA). Australia needs to shift its focus back to SEA and lead a regional Information Operations campaign to combat Daesh. As the Daesh inspired siege of the southern Philippines’ city of Marawi enters its 8th week, there has been a change in the strategic narrative in Australia with senior US  military leaders  and the  intelligence …

The words culture and strategy are full to overflowing with meaning, non meaning and contested ideas. I ask the reader to skirt this semantic swamp and accept culture as “the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a group” and strategy as “purposeful behaviour to realise an end.” Accepting these general definitions allows for a brisk consideration of the relevance the idea that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The specific phrase “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” has been variously attributed to …

History exists between twenty and sixty degrees north latitude. Intertwined within this parameter are five strategic challenges: the four potential state competitors of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, and the non-state challenge of violent extremist organizations filling power vacuums (commonly referred as the 4+1). Each of these nations leverages economic coercion, political influence, unconventional warfare, information operations, cyber operations, and military posture to advance their national …

We are the guns, and your masters! Saw ye our flashes ? Heard ye the scream of our shells in the night, and the shuddering crashes ? Saw ye our work by the roadside, the shrouded things lying, Moaning to God that He made them — the maimed and the dying ? Husbands or sons, Fathers or lovers, we break them. We are the guns!’  [1]    "The voice of the guns" by Gilbert Frankau Gilbert Frankau wrote the Voice of the Guns in 1916. His poem describes the physical and psychological dominance of artillery in the …

‘ Science runs ahead of military and political affairs evolving new conditions, which institutions must  adapt  to .’ According to an  NRMA report  a global  new energy vehicle  transition has  begun . A confluence of battery innovations, autonomous driving technology and public awareness of clean energy imperatives has conspired to trigger a switch in sentiment away from  fossil fuel  cars. Targets are already being set in some countries for zero emission vehicle  zones  by 2040. Car manufacturers are …

In 2007 the Australian Army Journal published an article titled  Peak Oil and the Australian Army . The motivation for writing that article was the risk of Army being ‘functionally dislocated’ by the onset of peak oil with inappropriate doctrine, training and equipment. This post provides an update to the original article, focusing on the current global and Australian oil situation. It also discusses Army’s, and more broadly Defence’s, approach to a liquid fuel constrained future.  The continued growth in …

In space, all is not what it seems. Like military deception tactics in maritime, land, air and cyber domains, the  space warfighting domain  may also be rife with deceit and disguise. So it is foreseeable that space-based  deception measures  will be a core component of military space operations, due to the unique open nature of space and the predictable physics of Earth’s orbits. There is nowhere to hide in Earth’s gravity well, so clever stratagems to mask space capabilities and mislead rivals will be …

No Sherman Tank could  stand up  to a Panther Tank, but the U.S. had advantages of supporting airpower, plentiful reserves, and an overwhelming superiority of numbers. During the Normandy Campaign in the Second World War, German  Panther  and  Tiger  tanks proved to be technically  superior  to Allied M4 Sherman Tanks. The heavily armoured German tanks outgunned their opponents with higher  velocity  tank guns, resulting in huge  losses  of Allied tanks. Consequently, Shermans became known as  Purple Heart …

‘The history of failure in warfare can be summed up in two words: Too late.’ – General Douglas MacArthur In Part 1 of  Making a Case for Space  published in early 2017, I submitted a case for sovereign space launch and small satellite capabilities. In my estimation, a bespoke space capability was cost-feasible due to technology advancements, which would become increasingly vital to national security in the years ahead. So now in 2019 where military space is firmly  de rigueur , it’s timely to revisit the …

The current manner in which the Australian Army  formally  develops its junior officers is heavily focused on generalised outcomes and rarely fosters an environment where subalterns are compelled to use their cognitive and analytical skills. This article will argue that the Australian Army should re-think its approach to the formal training and education of its junior officers and suggests a framework in which this change may be implemented. For the purpose of this article, training is defined as the …