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Resilience The AARC Quarter 3 Strategic Assessment has been published, which acknowledges resilience as an emerging theme relevant to land power’s contribution to Australian Defence Strategy. The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements recommends a ‘fundamental shift in strategic thinking about national disaster management. If there were one word that encapsulates this shift, it would be ‘resilience.’’ The Royal Commission’s report highlights that 33 people died, over 3,000 homes were …

Colonel Mark Armstrong’s Australian Army Occasional Paper ‘Every Possible Capability: Some Implications of the Army Reserve Call Out for Operation Bushfire Assist 2019-2020’ can now be downloaded from the Australian Army Research Library here . Read on below for an abstract of the paper. During the latter months of 2019 and the new year of 2020, Australia experienced catastrophic and widespread bushfires. As the situation worsened, the federal government unexpectedly called out the Australian Defence Force …

Major Power Competition The October 2020 edition of PRISM from National Defense University is focussed upon Great Power Competition. Two articles address the competition for influence in Africa which argue for sustained presence that mitigates the risk of losing influence on the continent. Similarly, the recently commenced Journal of Future Conflict (Fall 2020 edition) from Queens University in Canada takes a comparable orientation. Of note, the Journal of Future Conflict includes articles from David …

The Australian Army is in an exciting period of change and development. New strategic guidance and a generously funded force structure plan , coupled with the demand of senior leaders for change, presents opportunities for substantial enhancements to Army’s structure and capabilities. Seizing the opportunity requires innovative employment of emerging technologies grounded in real-world experience. This article will use the example of a Semi-Autonomous Combat Team concept to illustrate how disruptive …

Deterrence The Texas National Security Review have published a primer on Coercion Theory , including deterrence theory, and how it applies to contemporary geopolitics. This article has also been released in podcast format by Horns of a Dilemma . Major Power Competition Modern War Institute have released a podcast interview with Dr Jack Watling of RUSI, exploring the lessons being drawn from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . The interview focussed upon the surprisingly high level of attrition attained by …

In late September, the UK Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter launched the Integrated Operating Concept , a summary of which appeared in ETOs . This document and its launch are notable in the manner with which they articulate the threat perceived by the UK Ministry of Defence, and therefore warrant deeper analysis. Gen. Carter’s speech was hosted by General David Petraeus (ret.), available on Youtube ( here ), marked by a hawkish framing of contemporary conflict: ‘Our authoritarian rivals see …

Major Power Competition Jason Begley of the Air Power Development Centre offers a nuanced appreciation of Competitive Strategies in the Indo-Pacific , published through the Harvard Belfer Centre. This report is an extended read (approx. 2 hours) that anchors appreciation off an approach that ‘views strategic competition structurally – poised atop a hierarchy made up of smaller competitions, which are themselves comprised of discrete, single-issue contexts.’ This analysis leverages the approach taken in the …

Deterrence The UK Chief of General Staff (CGS), General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, spoke on 29 Sep about how the UK Army is prepared for the challenges of the future. The full speech is available here , with the following quote being of note: “It is the capability to war-fight which provides the credibility to underpin a form of flexible modern deterrence – ensuring resilience in defence and unpredictability in offence – and it is this capability that drives our competitors to operate in the shadows.” This …

Deterrence Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. John Hyten recorded a presentation for the National Defence University about the ongoing relevance of deterrence. Gen Hyten spoke to deterrence as a component of the forthcoming U.S. Joint Warfighting Concept, which will be enabled by four underlying concepts: joint contested logistics, all-domain command and control, joint fires and information advantage. Major Power Competition Foreign Policy has analysed a Finland Ministry of Defence …

Reviewed by Major Andrew Maher By Alexander Watson, Penguin Random House, UK, 2019, ISBN 9780241309063, 246pp Australian audiences tend to associate the military challenges of the First World War with Gallipoli, Belgium and France but, a century on, a broader aperture is necessary. On the Eastern Front, the Habsberg army was meant to hold the Russians at bay, allowing the German army to shift its weight of effort to achieving decisive victory through the Schifflen Plan in the west, before rebalancing its …