Delivering Effective Partner Force Capacity Building   Routledge Press , Essex, 2021, 116 pp Paperback ISBN 9780367766405 Authors : Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds Reviewed By : James Bryant   Some authors just make good sense. Reflective, reasonable and rational, with no particular ideological axe to grind, and transparent in how they arrive at their conclusions. In this reviewer’s opinion, Jack Watling is quite simply one of the most lucid, clear and insightful analysts on modern war on land. An …

  Foreword The Australian soldier has a well-earned reputation for expertise in counter-insurgency. Perhaps this reputation is born from Australia’s experience of the Malayan Emergency, the Borneo Confrontation or the Vietnam War; and it was probably sustained through United Nations deployments as peacekeepers within generally fractured societies. A Framework for Irregular Warfare (the Irregular Warfare Essay Collection), published by the Australian Army Research Centre, responds to this tradition. By …

Lessons Learnt from the War in Ukraine Introduction Many may not realise that the origin of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, dates back almost a century, while modern UAV technology has been rapidly developing in civilian and military contexts over the past four decades. Drones represent the intersection of two important trends in military technology – the precise nature of weapons and the rise of robotics which, when combined, are flown remotely at no risk to a pilot and capable …

  A Plan B: How Might Australia Support Resistance? The  Defence Strategic Review (DSR) was a call for action which stated bluntly 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’.  Examining the ‘state of competition’ globally might also help explain what it is we are competing for. Given the march of autocratic governance regimes within the international world order – regimes that use tools such as …

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 …

Introduction Tomorrow’s protracted battles will occur in complex terrain where casualties are maximised and engagements drawn out for as long as possible. This Land Power Forum Post describes the concept of protracted battle in the context of supporting military theory and its effects on land power. It will demonstrate why battles are becoming longer and larger fights occur in complex terrain. These protracted battles are the domain of semi-national forces who behave with a mix of characteristics, …

To Deter and Respond to Invasion ‘In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity’ Sun Tzu Introduction Modern history depicts some decisive military trends. Among these, counter-insurgency wars are inherently unpopular, demonstrably costly and, for the most part, unsuccessful. If this is the case, it follows that Australia’s Defence policy must include layers of defence that guarantee sovereignty and that capitalise on the asymmetric advantage traditionally experienced by insurgent forces. Specifically, …

An incomplete understanding of the nature of the conflict in Ukraine still plagues Australian strategic discourse. In what has been termed, the ‘ first TikTok war ,’ Ukraine’s strategy of resistance indicates an intent to democratise warfare. In this context, the purpose of this Post is to explore the strategy of resistance, Ukraine’s employment of this strategy, and the issues that emerge as lessons for national security professionals. Using the ASPI Strategist as an indicator of the breadth of the …

A Framework for Irregular Warfare Australia has a long history with insurgency and considers its experience in Phuoc Tuy, Vietnam and Uruzghan, Afghanistan, as examples evidencing a reputation as a world leader in this space. An innate capability for insurgency and irregular warfare would seem logical given the frequency of insurgency in our region; almost all South-East Asian nations have experienced insurgency since World War II. [1] Despite this context and recent operational experience in Iraq and …

A Strategic Plan for Tunisia Tunisia is challenged by a dual insurgency, with affiliates of al-Qaeda and ISIS exploiting grievances within the population and leveraging Islam to mobilise support. The objective of these affiliates is to discredit the Tunisian authorities and install a sharia-ruled government. [1] Tunisia’s strategic partnership with Algeria has moderately suppressed a cross-border insurgency in Tunisia’s west, although the insurgency still leads the contest for the control of the …