With rising great power contestation and increasing strategic risk across the globe, everything seems to be called ‘war’. Examples of war’s colloquial use include the trade war between the United States and China, and the concept of grey-zone war (sometimes known as grey-zone warfare). This style of ‘political war’ is defined as “…political influence, economic coercion, use of cyber, use of information operations, and …use of military posture” to shape an opponent, their allies and partners. [1] Although …

A Professional Military Education program   Introduction The Defence Strategic Review (DSR) has provided a blueprint for a substantial increase in Australia’s military capacity in response to an evolving strategic environment. It recognises that Australia’s closest international partner, the United States of America, is no longer the leader of a unipolar world. Also acknowledged is an increase in international competition and threats to the rules-based order, both of which requiring a response by …

In this Occasional Paper , Dr Albert Palazzo provides an introduction to the concept of land warfare, including its nature, character and how it adapts to the evolving strategic environment. Intended as a primer, this work aims to provide a start-point for a career-long journey of study and reflection on the topic. Occasional Paper 14: Land Warfare, an introduction … Land Warfare, an …

By Thomas Waldman Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2021, 320 pages) Reviewed by Major Andrew Maher Thomas Waldman’s Vicarious Warfare: American Strategy and the Illusion of War on the Cheap , unpacks America’s contemporary employment of military force in conflicts worldwide. On the basis of his analysis, Waldman argues that an operational concept exists, called “vicarious warfare,” which he asserts is a manifestation of a political desire to limit the costs of waging war – financial, political, and …

Reviewed by Major Andrew Maher By Alexander Watson, Penguin Random House, UK, 2019, ISBN 9780241309063, 246pp Australian audiences tend to associate the military challenges of the First World War with Gallipoli, Belgium and France but, a century on, a broader aperture is necessary. On the Eastern Front, the Habsberg army was meant to hold the Russians at bay, allowing the German army to shift its weight of effort to achieving decisive victory through the Schifflen Plan in the west, before rebalancing its …

In my early days as a Trainee Army Officer, I often found myself wanting a better grasp of how all the elements and levels of warfare fitted together. The Joint Military Education and Training program at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) focused on strategy. Conversely, the concurrent Single Service Training periods at the Royal Military College, Duntroon (RMC), dealt almost exclusively with tactics. With a lack of military experience, I did not truly understand how tactical actions nested within …

The dawn of a new financial year brought the release of the 2020 Defence Strategic Update (DSU) and its companion, the 2020 Force Structure Plan. Released as a ‘ guide for our nation through one of the most challenging times we have known since the 1930s and the early 1940s.’ The DSU dictates adjustments to Australia’s strategic defence posture to tackle a scale of regional change described as the ‘most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War’. While the ‘C’ word of 2020 must sadly …

To develop commanders that are more intuitive requires training against a demanding (near-peer) adversary and the time to allow a degree of free-play rather than just the time to tick off the mission-essential task list. This is challenging to achieve in training given resource constraints and the need for safety. We rarely re-run a training serial. Responding to Major Purdy's ' Down and Dirty Downtown: Future Land Combat 2025 ' in October last year, I highlighted that while technology and numerical …

Introduction The ongoing struggle in Ukraine between government forces and Russian backed separatists – as well as operations in Syria - has provided a range of useful insights into trends in future land combat operations.  Much as the Yom Kippur War and the first Gulf War yielded insights into the future of warfare, these conflicts offer an important chance to prepare for the future operations if we are clever enough to grasp the opportunity.  The recent article by Professor Karber and Lieutenant Colonel …

In this final addition to the series we will be examining how the growth of the precision strike regime might dramatically transform the role of artillery within the Australian Army. This piece will look at how novel technologies and operating concepts might dramatically change the traditional role of Artillery. As noted earlier in this series, combined arms is the ‘core competency’ of the Army. [1] It is both an operating concept and a state of mind. By using maneuver to break the balance, initiative and …