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Abstract Over the past decade, Australia has been called upon to conduct a range of whole of government interventions, as both a lead and contributing country. The experience has taught us a lot about how to prepare for and conduct such missions. It has also taught us much about the political and risk factors that often work against achieving a unified approach to such contingencies. Ten years on, though, it is fair to say that Australia has improved systemically in being able to mount such operations, but …

Abstract This article is an amended version of a paper first presented at the 2011 Chief of Army History Conference. The theme of the conference was ‘1911–Preliminary Moves’, therefore the paper examined the professionalisation of the officer corps via the prism of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. The article demonstrates that there were elements of professionalism present in the Australian military prior to RMC’s founding in 1911; in fact these foundations were crucial in the long-term development of …

Abstract Advisers working with the Afghan 205th Corps operate in a ‘twilight zone’ as they attempt to bridge the cultural and institutional gaps between the Afghans and their ISAF partners. Like the rest of the Afghan National Army, the Corps is grappling with numerous institutional development challenges while simultaneously fighting a difficult counterinsurgency war. Determining what might constitute ‘Afghan okay’, and how they can assist their Afghan colleagues to arrive at this state, demands …

Abstract Many armies today are learning institutions with outstanding lessons learnt processes that have saved soldiers’ lives on the battlefield. However, the body of intangible, experiential knowledge that combat arms leaders hold is difficult to capture and nearly impossible to pass on in formal courses or training scenarios. This article identifies ten critical command and leadership lessons, from time management to battle staff employment to dealing with casualties, garnered throughout operations in …

Listed below are a select group of books recently or soon to be published that either contribute to the discussions initiated in the articles in the Australian Army Journal  or on subjects that may be of interest in the near future. Some of these books may be reviewed in forthcoming editions of the Journal. Marcus Fielding, Red Zone Baghdad: My War in Iraq , Big Sky Publishing, 2011, ISBN 9781921941177, 288 pp, RRP AU$29.99. In Red Zone Baghdad Colonel Marcus Fielding presents his view of the last months …

Lieutenant General Sir Donald Beaumont Dunstan, AC, KBE, CB (1923–2011) Donald Beaumont Dunstan was born in Murray Bridge South Australia on 18 February 1923. In February 1940 he entered the Royal Military College Duntroon, graduating as part of a shortened wartime course in June 1942. Upon graduation he was posted as a platoon commander to the 27th Infantry Battalion where he served (except for a period in brigade headquarters as a liaison officer) for the remainder of the war in the South West Pacific …

    Written bny: Toby Harnden, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2011,  ISBN 9781849164214, 400 pp   Reviewed by: Brigadier Richard Iron, British Army This is a book to make the blood boil for any military professional. Toby Harnden has written a biography of a single battalion’s tour in Helmand and presents first hand evidence, more convincingly than any government spokesman, of the reality of what happens when a nation bites off more than it can chew. It is the story of good men doing their best in …

  Written by: John Connor, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, 2011,  ISBN 9781107009509, 248 pp,    Reviewed by: Michael Easson, PhD Candidate, UNSW@ADFA He finally got a real biography. His autobiography, Carpenter to Cabinet , was a tired, plodding yawn. Senator Sir George Foster Pearce (1870–1952) —carpenter, union leader, founder of the Labor Party in Western Australia, ‘Labor rat’ during the conscription split of 1917, conservative Minister and statesman, defence advocate, Minister and …

    Written by: Stephen J Lofgren (ed) US Army Center of Military History, Washington DC, 2011,  GPO S/N: 008029005450, 340pp   Review by: Colonel (Retd) Mike Lovell, AM, psc (US) All of us have certain events and recollections that are ingrained into our memories. We can replay them as if they happened just yesterday. Many are memories of globally significant events, some of which we observed in real-time while others were so profound that we can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when …

  Written by: David Connery, David Cran and David Evered Big Sky Publishing, Newport, 2012, I SBN 9781921941771, 159pp, $19.99   Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith, Australian Army Conducting Counterinsurgency: Reconstruction Task Force 4 in Afghanistan is the second book in the Australian Military History Series. The Army History Unit sponsors the series, which is written for ‘members of the Australian Army with a focus on issues and deployments that the Australian Army has participated in’. The …