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* This article is based on a presentation by Major General Lewis to the Homeland Security Forum on 29 April 2003 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. The task of counter-terrorism has sometimes been compared to that of goal keeping in a soccer World Cup final. The keeper may save a hundred shots—relentlessly angled from every direction, height and velocity—aimed at the mouth of the goal, but his professional skill, tenacity and anticipation will pass largely unnoticed by spectators. What the …

In late 2002, the Australian National Headquarters Middle East Area of Operations attached the author as an ADF liaison officer to Third US Army’s Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) to support campaign planning for what was to become Operation Iraqi Freedom . The author was embedded (integrated) in CFLCC as a lead planner and this article describes ten observations made during the experience of working in a coalition headquarters. The views outlined are not offered as formal solutions to the …

* This article is based on an address to the Australian Defence Organisation’s Network-centric Warfare Conference in May 2003, in the immediate aftermath of the warfighting phase of Coalition operations in Iraq. The brevity, violence and spectacular speed of the second Iraq War demonstrated that armed conflict in the information age is likely to coexist with older aspects of industrial and even pre-industrial warfare. Kinetic effect—that is, the collective impact of blast, heat and penetration from the …

* This article is based on an address to the Socratic Forum on ‘Pre-emptive Wars: Legal? Ethical? In the National Interest?’ supported by the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University, Brisbane, on 1 December 2003. The American doctrine of pre-emptive military action, outlined by President George W. Bush during 2002, is a realistic and morally justified response to dangerous, new security challenges in the 21st century. This article identifies two basic reasons for the rise of …

* The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr Alden Klovdahl, School of Social Science, Australian National University, and Dr Carlo Kopp, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University in developing the ideas in this paper. In the 21st century, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) cannot afford to ignore the role that mimicry will play in contemporary conflict, particularly in unconventional or asymmetric warfare. This article argues that the Australian Army needs to …

Dear Editors, While reading Lieutenant Colonel David Kilcullen’s interesting article ‘Combined Arms and the Close Battle in Complex Terrain’ in the December 2003 edition of the AAJ , I noticed a point that needs amplification. Lieutenant Colonel Kilcullen states, quite correctly, that British artillery pieces never entered Basra, although mortars were employed. He is right, but it should be noted that Basra lies along a waterway that is never more that about 7 km wide. Unlike infantry mortars, field guns …

We are pleased to announce that Dr Michael Evans, coeditor of the Australian Army Journal and Head of the Land Warfare Studies Centre, has won the Hugh G. Nott Award for the best article published in the United States Naval War College Review for 2003. The Naval War College Review is one of the premier publications in the United States in the area of military strategy. The prize for the best article is awarded annually by the Naval War College Foundation in memory of Captain Hugh G. Nott, US Navy, who made …

Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steal, trans. M. Hofmann, Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 2003, 289pp. Robert Leckie, Helmet for My Pillow , Ibooks, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001, 324pp. Anthony Swofford, Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War , Scribner, London, 2003, 260pp. Review Essay by: Russell Parkin Combat memoirs written by soldiers form a unique genre in the literature of war. Much military literature concentrates on the sweep of battle. Autobiographies of generals and other senior …

Professor Gunther E. Rothenberg (1923–2004) Editors’ Note: Professor Gunther E. Rothenberg, a distinguished international scholar of war, was a foundation member of the Australian Army Journal ( AAJ ) Editorial Advisory Board from February 2003 until his death in April 2004. As a tribute to Professor Rothenberg’s services to the journal, the AAJ is publishing the eulogy delivered at his funeral in Canberra on 29 April 2004 by Professor Peter Dennis. Eleanor has asked me to speak about Gunther’s life. How …

Brigadier Monsignor Gerald Anthony Cudmore, AM 1933–2004 Monsignor Gerry Cudmore, well known to many soldiers of all or no religious faiths, died on 21 April 2004, aged 71. Monsignor Cudmore was ordained priest in 1958. After serving in a number of Melbourne parishes, he became a chaplain in the Australian Regular Army in 1963. Following appointments to the Army Apprentice School and the Officer Cadet School, he was the first Australian chaplain to serve in Vietnam with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian …