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Defence Planning and Uncertainty: Preparing for the Next Asia–Pacific War   Written by: Stephan Frühling,  Routledge, 2014  ISBN 9780415605731, 240pp,   As the Indo–Pacific region continues to grow, both economically and militarily, a growing number of countries in the region and beyond are facing challenges in their strategic planning. Stephan Frühling asks, ‘How can countries determine what kind of military force is needed if threats are uncertain and history is full of strategic surprises?’ For the …

New Zealand, Her Allies and the Second World War   New Zealand Military History Committee, 2024, ISBN 9780473704230, 486 pp., RRP NZD$45 (softcover) Editors: Peter Cooke and John Crawford Reviewed by: Brian Farrell   The most difficult obstacle facing any effort to publish a history book that emerges from an academic conference is to persuade a publisher to take it on in the first place. Many shy away, citing the difficulty of compiling a volume that maintains coherence in coverage of its connecting theme, …

Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay   Oxford University Press, 2022, ISBN 9780190062361, 496 pp, RRP GBP£27.49 (hardcover) Author: Craig L Symonds Reviewed by: Thomas J Rogers   Nimitz at War is a biographical study of Admiral Chester W Nimitz during his time as Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) in World War II. Author Craig L Symonds presents a chronological narrative beginning with Nimitz taking control in Hawaii in late December 1941. A prolific naval historian at the …

World War II Allied Logistics in the Mediterranean   University Press of Kentucky, 2022, ISBN 9780813183770, 282 pp, RRP USD$40 (hardcover) Author: David D Dworak Reviewed by: John Nash   As the well-worn aphorism goes, ‘amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics’. Undoubtedly, logistics is at the core of every military operation throughout history, making or breaking battles, campaigns and wars. War of Supply by David Dworak is an excellent examination of Allied logistics in the Mediterranean …

The British and American Armies, 1917–1941   University Press of Kansas , 2022, ISBN 9780700633180, 304 pp, RRP USD$59.99 (hardcover) Author: Tyler R Bamford Reviewed by: Megan Hamilton   The alliance between Great Britain and the United States of America in World War II was deemed to be ‘the most complete unification of military effort ever achieved’ by General George Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff during the war. [1] However, as other scholars of alliance warfare in the 20th-century Anglosphere have …

Crafting a Vision for the Future Australian Army The fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia … what the Battle of Britain required, the Battle for Australia demands. Prime Minister John Curtin, 1942 [1] Introduction By late 1941, Australia had deployed more than 22,000 soldiers across its northern approaches in preparation for a possible Japanese advance on the mainland. By February 1942, Singapore, Malaya and The Dutch East Indies were all under Emperor Hirohito’s control. New Guinea and the …

An Enduring Strategic Challenge On 24 May 2024, the Australian Government quietly designated Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) as a terrorist organisation. [1] The Australian terrorist designation was made long after the Houthis initiated attacks on Red Sea shipping in solidarity with Hamas following the 7 October 2023 attacks, and long after the Houthis became the de facto government for northern Yemen (circa 2014), emulating the governance models of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. …

Introduction The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) brought Australia’s strategic context into sharp focus. As a rising power, China is challenging the rules-based global order, and great power competition threatens Australia’s national interests. Australia faces the most challenging set of strategic circumstances since the Second World War, making the potential for short-warning large-scale combat operations (LSCO) in the Indo-Pacific a real possibility. [1] The 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) …

Introduction The Defence Strategic Review of 2023 (DSR) underlined the importance of the littoral environment in Australia’s future defence needs. [1] As part of this, the DSR outlined an operating concept for army fires as a form of mobile coastal artillery (what Alfred Thayer Mahan would have called a ‘fortress fleet’) designed, in part, to deny use of the littoral environment to hostile forces. [2] This concept tracks closely with the rationale for the marine littoral regiments outlined in the US Marine …

Introduction Studies have demonstrated human-machine teaming (HMT) to be an effective and strategic mechanism for combining the strengths of human skills and knowledge with the benefits of robotic, autonomous and artificial intelligence (RAS-AI) enabled capabilities. [1] In a military context, HMT provides a way for ‘humans to operate in tomorrow’s faster, more data-heavy and more autonomous battlefield.' [2] The advent of HMT has also paved the way for other forms of collaborative military operations, …