Managing Civil-Military Cooperation   Written by: Sebastiaan J H Rietjens and Myriame T I B Bollen (eds),  Ashgate Publishing Limited, Surrey, 2008, ISBN: 9781315593470, 280pp   Reviewed: by Major Richard Peace Civil-military cooperation is now a feature of nearly all Australian current operational deployments. While seen by some as a black art, this book attempts to dispel some of the misconceptions that arise on what is civil- military cooperation. This book is a collection of essays based on the Dutch …

Abstract This article argues that Improvised Explosive Devices are robots. In declining to make this connection, Western militaries have been blind to their adversaries’ use of robot-enabled warfare. The effect has been to render Western soldiers tactically and operationally reactive, and on the wrong end of attrition warfare. The resolution lies in understanding how robots are supervised, and how a robot-enabled force can enable its personnel to out-adapt their human foes. Introduction The rapid fielding …

Listed below is a selection from the review copies that have arrived at the Australian Army Journal . Reviews for many of these books can be found online in the relevant edition of the Australian Army Journal at: http://www.defence.gov.au/army/lwsc/Australian_Army_Journal.asp North Korea on the Brink, Glyn Ford with Soyoung Kwon, Pluto Press, ISBN 9780745325989, 249 pp. (Distributed in Australia by Palgrave Macmillan) Reporting the War: Freedom of the Press from the American Revolution to the War on …

Mud & Dust – Australian Army Vehicles and Artillery in Vietnam   Written by: Michael K Cecil,  New Holland Publishers, 2009, ISBN 9781741107678, 272pp   Reviewed by: Ian Kuring, Australian Army Mud & Dust by Michael Cecil is the third book of a series sponsored by the Australian War Memorial. It is a well researched, interesting and easy to read reference book covering the armoured fighting vehicles, artillery, logistic vehicles and engineer equipment used by the Australian Defence Force in Vietnam. Also …

Embedded: A Marine Corps Adviser Inside the Iraqi Army   Written by: Wesley R Gray, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2009, ISBN 9781591143406, 272pp   Reviewed by: Graeme Sligo, Australian Army Second Lieutenant Wesley Gray was a young Marine at Okinawa in 2006 when told he was being posted—at short notice—to Anbar Province to advise and train members of the Iraqi Army. It was a seven month tour. When Gray arrived, in July 2006, the insurgency was at a critical stage. The Golden Mosque bombing that year …

Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century   Written by: William Philpott,  Little, Brown, London, 2009, ISBN 9781408701089, 736pp   Reviewed by: Albert Palazzo, Land Warfare Studies Centre For most readers the mention of the Somme brings forth the image of a futile and tragic campaign in which a generation of fine British and Imperial soldiery was wilfully slaughtered by an incompetent and distant command. William Philpott, in his breakthrough book Bloody Victory: …

Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty- first Century   Written by: Peter Singer,  The Penguin Press, New York, 2009, ISBN 9781594201981, 512pp   Reviewed by: Richard S Bowyer, Defence Science and Technology Organisation Peter Singer’s Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the Twenty-first Century takes the reader on a twenty-two chapter journey through the space occupied by the mechanical, electronic and software world of real robots doing real stuff. Situated …

The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War   Written by: Conor Foley,  Verso, New York and London, 2008,  ISBN 9781844672899, 266pp   Reviewed by: Tristan Moss, Australian National University Since the end of the Cold War the world has seen the significant growth in the profile and importance of humanitarian aid. Running parallel to this is the increasing currency of the concept of ‘humanitarian intervention’, an idea often used as a justification for government action in foreign crisis zones. …

The Science of War: Defence Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes   Written by: Michael E O’Hanlon,  Princeton University Press, 2009, ISBN 9781400830930, 280pp Reviewed by: Mark Thomson, Australian Strategic Policy Institute Michael O’Hanlon is a prominent figure in the US national security debate. As senior author of the Brooking Institution’s Iraq Index and its Afghanistan and Pakistan variants, he has done as much as anyone to promote an evidence-based discussion of ongoing US …

Diggers and Greeks: The Australian campaigns in Greece and Crete   Written by: Maria Hill, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2010,  ISBN 9781742230146, 496pp   Reviewed by: Karl James, Australian War Memorial After its successful campaign in the Libyan desert at the start of the year, in late March and early April 1941, the Australian 6th Division was sent to mainland Greece with other British and New Zealand troops. The British had promised the Greeks military assistance if Greece was attacked. When the anticipated …