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Abstract The Australian Army’s success in force generation and preparation and the conduct of contemporary and future operations will be determined largely by its capacity to learn and adapt. Only through a continual cycle of reviewing and adapting in response to a changing environment will the Army retain its ability to fulfil its operational charter while also creating a culture that is capable of encouraging innovation and creativity. The ‘Adaptive Army’ initiative is more than a simple reorganisation. …

Abstract This articles examines the provenance and utility of two metaphors commonly used to help describe the dynamics of contemporary combat. It argues that, although it shares the weaknesses of all metaphors in being partially inappropriate and incomplete, the ASDA cycle has greater contemporary relevance than the earlier Boyd or OODA cycle. In 2006, the first edition of the Australian Army’s concept Adaptive Campaigning,  capturing the lessons of nearly a decade of Army experimentation, introduced the …

Abstract This article contends that the experience of the early twenty-first century has highlighted a long-term systemic weakness in the formulation and execution of Western military strategy. The need for strategists to focus on people, culture and society is not just a counterinsurgency requirement; rather it should be an indispensible and enduring strand in all strategic calculations. There is a need to immigrate the thinking, methods, products and approach of anthropology into the formulation and …

Abstract The Victorian bush fires of February 2009 swiftly destroyed nearly two thousand homes and took over 170 lives. Yet, equally as swift, and in spite of the extensive damage, the ADF responded quickly and efficiently to this disaster with Operation VICTORIAN FIRES ASSIST. While the success of this operation was obvious for all to see, the author identifies several lessons that can be drawn from this unique experience, examining what worked as well as what did not—and how matters could be improved. To …

Listed below is a selection from the review copies that have arrived at the Australian Army Journal . Reviews for many of these books can be found online in the relevant edition of the Australian Army Journal at: http://www.defence.gov.au/army/lwsc/Australian_Army_Journal.asp No Clear Flight Plan: Counterinsurgency and Aerospace Power , James Fergusson and William March (eds), Centre for Defence and Security Studies, ISBN 9780978086848, 238 pp. North Korea on the Brink , Glyn Ford with Soyoung Kwon, Pluto …

Listed below is a selection from the review copies that have arrived at the Australian Army Journal . Reviews for many of these books can be found online in the relevant edition of the Australian Army Journal at: https://researchcentre.army.gov.au/library/australian-army-journal   Military Ethics ,  C A J Coady and Igor Primoratz, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 9780754624875, 546 pp. More than an Ally? Contemporary Australia–US Relations , Maryanne Kelton, Ashgate, ISBN 9780754673675, 226 pp. Mr Double Seven: A …

  … Chauvel Prize 2009 - Colonel Roger Noble …

Abstract Army’s doctrine is absolutely certain of the importance of close combat. Land Warfare Doctrine 1  (LWD–1) in fact describes close combat as Army’s fundamental skill—is this true? Is the doctrinal focus of close combat reflected in the training areas and schools of the Army? The anecdotal evidence is that it is not. An examination of recent works on distributed manoeuvre identifies the essential characteristics of any close combat training ‘system’. Training close combat is at the forefront of …

Abstract The complexity of modern warfare makes decision difficult to achieve. Conventional wisdom holds that, when fighting insurgents and other asymmetric actors, wars will be long and costly struggles that simply pit political wills against each other in a Clausewitzian kind of grey clash of ... moral masses’. In this article, the authors reject this fatalist view and posit that, with the right skill sets, Western commanders may possibly be able to restore their ability to achieve decision on the modern …

Abstract The article gathers together a collection of thoughts on command from the perspective of a brigade commander. Most will not be new. They are aimed at commanding officers, though some will resonate with more junior commanders. The article has been derived from a speech delivered at the 2008 and 2009 pre-command courses in Canungra by the then Brigadier Stephen Day. I worked with ten different commanding officers while I was a brigade commander. They were the ablest of soldiers. We learnt much in …