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Part 1 of this series made the case that humanities and social sciences (HASS) and management disciplines are indispensable for the long-term effectiveness of military planning. They greatly complement STEM capabilities and help make military plans more relevant and robust. This second article in the series explores the pervasive antipathy towards these disciplines in the Australian public discourse, and the implications of this for the Australian military. As was explained in Part 1 of this series , STEM …

This is the sixth blog in a series on benchmarking the French Army – the armée de Terre. To date, this series has ‘benchmarked’ the armée de Terre , its culture , its structure , its people capability  and its approach to training . This post will analyse the French Army’s modernisation program. In doing so, it will highlight points relevant to the increasingly important Army/armée de Terre partnership. The author currently serves as Army’s Liaison Officer to the armée de Terre in France. An …

This edition of ETOs seeks to promote readings the AARC team recommend for assisting Army to adapting to future threats and opportunities. We deliberately span a range of topics and aim to provide enough time to order books of interest prior to the Christmas holidays. Happy reading! Resilience   Philip H. Gordon, Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East , Oct 2020. This book is a clinical review of United States’ efforts to affect regime change in the Middle East since …

The Australian military should strive for a balanced skills strategy, which augments STEM capabilities with humanities, social sciences, and management disciplines. Any military is only as good as its people, platforms and partnerships – its veritable ‘Strategic Trinity’. However, the effects of these are not uniform, with people exerting a disproportionately significant impact on its long-term effectiveness. The calibre of the people – and their overall skills, training and experience – not only shapes …

At last, the Army’s watercraft replacement project is gaining traction. Land 8710 Army Littoral Manoeuvre promises to replace the Army’s archaic LCM-8 and LARC-5 small boats. In addition, the replacement of the decommissioned LCH Balikpapan Class amphibious vessels is receiving serious consideration. To say that this progress is overdue is to minimise the ancientness of these craft — they entered service earlier than the eldest of serving soldiers. There was a time when the Army’s establishment contained …

This is the fourth blog in a series on benchmarking the French Army – the armée de Terre. To date, this series has ‘benchmarked’  the armée de Terre , its culture and its structure . This post will analyse the French Army’s people capability. In doing so, it will highlight points of convergence relevant to the increasingly important Army/armée de Terre partnership. The author currently serves as Army’s Liaison Officer to the armée de Terre in France. Like most armies, including our own, the French Army …

Resilience ETOs had previously reported upon the acceleration of digital technology adoption in Australia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, reports similar accelerated change in South-East Asia, with an additional 40 million internet users in 2020, bringing the region to approximately 70% population adoption. Major Power Competition The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has settled into a Russian-brokered ceasefire , allowing examination of the lessons of the …

Reviewed by Dr Albert Palazzo By Sean McFate, William Morrow, New York, 2019, ISBN 978-0-06-284358-6, pp.318 Reviewers hesitate to recommend a book too enthusiastically because of the risk that readers will assume one is a friend of the author or that you suffer from a tendency to exaggerate. I can assure the readers of this review that I have never met Sean McFate, the author of The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder , and no one has ever accused me of exaggeration. Therefore, when I …

Introduction Army Headquarters – Future Land Warfare Branch, through the Australian Army Research Centre (AARC), have recently supported the establishment of innovative, practical prototyping spaces that are essential for imbuing the modern Army with the Creative Thinking culture necessary to succeed in a world increasingly reliant on technology. One such Makerspace will soon be inaugurated at Holsworthy Barracks, where it will serve as an opportunity for soldiers to physically express solutions to the …

Reviewed by Major Marshall Lawrence By Qiao Liang , Wang Xiangsui, People’s Liberation Army Literature and Arts Publishing House, 1999, ISBN 978-1626543058, 212pp Understanding the conceptual foundations of Chinese military thought is important for placing present Chinese actions into context and analysing what might come next. One of the most accessible and frequently cited primary sources translated to English is Unrestricted Warfare . Its influence and contents should therefore be of interest to many. …