The Australian Army’s Past, Present and Future Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is. [1] TE Lawrence, August 1917 Introduction [2] The public release of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) in April 2023 and National Defence Strategy (NDS) in …

Land Power’s Contribution to the Integrated Force Introduction Australia is on the precipice of the most significant change in military strategic policy since the end of the Cold War. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) recommended the Australian Defence Force (ADF) ‘maximise the deterrence, denial, and response options for the Government’ by evolving into an ‘integrated force’ that harnesses effects across all domains’. [i] The 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) advances this direction by …

by Mike Martin Hurst Publishers , 2023, 272 pp Hardback ISBN: 9781787389304 Paperback ISBN: 9781911723875 Reviewed by: Anthony Duus Mike Martin is a former British Army officer with extensive experience in Afghanistan, and he is currently a Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. In How to Fight a War , his fourth book, Martin has written a ‘reference guide for the Commander in Chief of a nation’s military’, as he believes that ‘our leaders must have the …

How the Australian Army Can Harness the Firepower Advantages of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Introduction Since 2011, the world has undergone a Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which has heralded worldwide advances in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and robotic technologies. [1] These disruptive technologies are gradually altering the character of warfare towards what AI entrepreneur Amir Husain describes as ‘hyper war’, where battles are waged entirely at machine speed. [2] The question of …

The Social Identity Foundations of Military Leadership Group affiliation and identity are key themes in Anthony King’s rich and extensive analysis of military cohesion and performance The Combat Soldier . [1] King argues that understanding operational performance depends crucially on understanding the nature of ‘collectives’. He shows how longstanding practices in military doctrine and training aim to enhance group cohesion by shaping affiliation and identity, so that the execution of orders by soldiers …

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific   by Trent Hone Naval Institute Press , 2022, 430 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9781682475959 Reviewed by: Jordan Beavis   In Mastering the Art of Command,  noted US naval historian Trent Hone investigates the leadership of Admiral Chester W Nimitz as Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) and Commander in Chief of the Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) during the Second World War. Both as a personality and as a fleet commander, Nimitz has already been the …

Business Decision-Making and Crisis Planning   by Garth Callender Wiley , 2023, xxiv+186 pp Paperback ISBN: 97813942033201 Reviewed by: Darren Cronshaw   Uncertainties and crises are a feature of contemporary global politics and business. In the face of conflict, extreme weather and natural disasters, cybercrime, pandemics, migration, and economic and supply chain instability, in what ways can leaders best lead through risk and chaos with agility and good decisions, while maintaining resilience for …

The Complete Story of the French Participation in the Dardanelles Expedition of 1915   by George H Cassar Helion , Warwick, 2019, 238 pp Hardback ISBN: 9781911628927 Reviewed by: Chris Roberts   Over a century after the last British troops were withdrawn from Gallipoli, volumes are still being written about a campaign that has been likened to a Greek tragedy. Within the historiography of the English-speaking peoples, the focus inevitably has been almost entirely on the British and Anzac contribution. Yet …

  by John D Hosler Hackett Publishing Company , 2022, 185 pp Paperback ISBN: 97813942033201 Reviewed by: John Nash   Military historians and theorists are often confronted by frustrating historical myths. Sometimes these are quite specific (e.g. a battle, historical figure, or piece of equipment), whereas sometimes they are historical constructs or historical arguments that have gained a life of their own and that come to bedevil the wider scholarship of war and military studies. The collection of chapters …

The Defence Strategic Review (DSR) was a call for action, which bluntly stated that we have seen ‘the return of major power strategic competition, the intensity of which should be seen as the defining feature of our region and time’. [1] Yet the DSR offers little insight into the nature of the competition that is being advanced by regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and others. Terms such as ‘grey zone’, ‘irregular warfare’ and ‘proxy warfare’ simply do not appear in the DSR, even though …