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Conflict and Cooperation in Space   Columbia University Press , New York, 2014, 193 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780231159128 Author : James Clay Moltz Reviewed By : Steven Henry   James Clay Moltz’s Crowded Orbits: Conflict and Cooperation in Space is an insightful examination of the challenges and opportunities in the space domain, making it essential reading for Defence space professionals, and those seeking to understand this critical domain better. The book leverages the ‘congested, contested and competitive’ …

The proliferation of information technologies, the rapid pace of military modernisation and the return to Great Power competition are challenging traditional notions of national security as it applies to Australia and its coalition partners.  The impact of information on modern warfighting is unhinging the asymmetries traditionally afforded to Australian and allied Special Operations Forces (SOF), calling for new ideas, concepts and capabilities. Taking a uniquely Australian perspective, in this AARC …

Australian Army Occasional Paper No. 6 In this paper, Associate Professor Kevin Foster of Monash University examines how the Australian Army’s engagement with, and use of, social media compares to that of allied and comparator militaries. Drawing on historical examples drawn from the First Gulf War, Somalia and Kosovo as well as Afghanistan and the Second Gulf War, the paper examines how militaries in the US, Britain, Israel and Australia have met (or have yet to meet) the challenges posed by the changed …

An Australian Approach In recent years, we have seen a substantial rise in measures undertaken by foreign state actors that could be considered foreign interference . There has also been a notable increase in online activity that is labelled as coordinated inauthentic behaviour . Both of these trends have led to the gradual adoption of the terms like Cyber-Enabled Foreign Influence and Interference (C-E FI/I) in Australia’s academic and security community lexicon. Such terms seeks to remove the ambiguity …

Bottom line up front Cyber warfare is growing as a domain of warfare but requires a different approach than the environmental domains. The individual services are not large enough to effectively generate cyber warfare capability and therefore Australian Defence Force (ADF) cyber operations must be a truly Joint enterprise. This will involve a raise, train, sustain and deliver model more similar to Special Forces than conventional capabilities, with Joint funding and direction, and the human capability …

As Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems proliferate, we must be prepared for what is to come. “I’m certainly questioning my original premise that the fundamental nature of war will not change. You’ve got to question that now. I just don’t have the answers yet,” US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, on the impact of intelligent machines The Chief of Army’s Futures Statement,  Accelerated Warfare , discusses the link between technology and the rapidly changing character of war. Specifically, …

In 2015, the  First Principles Review Report observed that Defence was lacking in its ability to manage and use its data. Duplication, fragmentation and inconsistency were cited as key shortfalls that were likely to impact the delivery of anticipated outcomes for a range of complex, information dependent capability investments. Confirming this, the Defence Enterprise Information Management Strategy 2015 – 2025 noted a proliferation of information and communication applications, siloed solutions, inadequate …

To understand technological change, look for the enduring patterns and concepts When Facebook was launched almost 15 years ago with a goal of connecting people, no one could have imagined that it would have become a tool for spreading hate speech or undermining elections. Yet this is precisely what happened. This was greatly amplified by the birth of the iPhone a few years later—with its encryption, portability, and the selection of downloadable social media ‘apps’. While these problems have been evident …

Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought.  Albert Einstein. The Australian Army is working to embrace a digital culture, but slow action is compromising future combat performance. Decisions made now will be realised on a vastly different future battlefield. To compete, Army must cognitively commit to gaining the technological edge by developing digital fluency in everyday decisions. Digital fluency is the objective of …

For the future Land Force, the ability to counter Information Warfare (IW) [1]  and operations in the Information Environment (IE) [2]  will be just as important as the ability to conduct them. This blog will look at countering IW influence activities using social media. Social media platforms are forums where information influence takes place, where narratives can be easily spread and countered, and where IW influence activities are already commonplace. The 2017 Director of National Intelligence  report …