2(AS) Division PME Program   What the Australian Army can learn from the 7 October 2023 HAMAS attack and the Israeli response On 7 October 2023, HAMAS terrorists launched a surprise attack on Israel. By its very nature this was a terrorist attack by the militia, intended to invoke fear by murdering and mutilating civilians, delivering – as Bruce Hoffman has argued – a statement of intent comparable to those of ISIS and the Einsatzgruppen. [1] Over the course of hours and days, militants abducted an …

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 …

2(AS) Division PME Program   Do you lead, or are you part of an organisation which has been asked to rapidly scale in response to contingencies? Then this topic is important for you.  In response to the release of the National Defence Strategy (NDS), a seminar was hosted by 2(AS) Division on the topic of accelerated preparedness, titled Scalability Insights for Defence . We have published an Occasional Paper of the same title . The seminar and paper share pioneering research – so stand on the knowledge …

  Edited by Catherine Grant, Alessio Patalano and James Russell Georgetown University Press , 2023, 360 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9781647123383 Paperback ISBN: 9781647123390 Ebook ISBN: 9781647123406 Reviewed by: Dongkeun Lee We are currently witnessing the age of naval power, where the competition between the United States (US) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) primarily unfolds at sea. Notable areas of potential conflict, such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, underscore the critical role of …

Chaos, Cohesion, and Consequences   Edited by Timothy Heck and Walker Mills Army University Press, 2023, 436 pp Paperback ISBN: 9781940804873 Reviewed by: Liam Kane When should military leaders break off an engagement with their enemies? What is the difference between a retreat and a rout? What is the significance of retreat? These are the some of the questions that the contributors to Armies in Retreat  seek to answer. The book’s editors, Timothy Heck and Walker Mills, were motivated to undertake this …

British Grand Strategy, 1919–1940   by David French Oxford University Press , 2022, 623 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780192863355 Reviewed by: Jordan Beavis David French is an illustrious name in British military history. For decades he has made significant contributions to our understanding of British strategy and Britain’s Army in both peace and war, in the latter case frequently rebalancing an often stereotyped view of the military force that was once responsible for the land defence of the world’s largest …

From the Ancient World to the Digital Age   Edited by Hal Brands Princeton University Press , 2023, 1158 pp Hardcover ISBN: 9780691204383 Reviewed by: Nick Bosio Since the early 1950s, one book, The Makers of Modern Strategy , has consistently been compulsory reading at staff and war colleges around most of the Western world. Each edition has provided practitioners and scholars with insights into strategy, strategic thinking, and the issues of strategic culture. Furthermore, each version of this …

The Indo-Pacific and Beyond Speech to the Chief of Army Symposium 2023, Perth Convention Centre, 30 August 2023 [Editorial note: This speech has been edited and condensed for clarity.] At the Shangri-La Dialogue last year, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and the United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, both spoke to the importance of guardrails—that is, simple practical structures to prevent a worst-case scenario. The bases for these guardrails are dialogue, communications, …

A Historical and Strategic Perspective Speech to the Chief of Army Symposium 2023, Perth Convention Centre, 30 August 2023 [Editorial note: This speech has been edited and condensed for clarity.] To help focus our topic today, let us first consider my favourite map. If you haven’t seen it before, it is the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) planning map centred on Darwin, but spun 45 degrees (Figure 1). It gives you a sense of Australia hanging off Asia, and what Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, called …

Speech given at the Synergia Conclave, Bangalore, India, 18 November 2023 [Editorial note: This speech has been edited and condensed for clarity.] I am going to discuss the ways advanced computing might change warfare, and the ways it might not. My aim is to recommend where advanced computing applications are likely to get the biggest return on investment. In order to avoid the trap of prediction, I intend to look at the past—particularly the recent past—to give us some sense of how best to focus the …