Military Strategy. Professor Peter Roberts, Director Military Sciences at RUSI, leads a wide ranging discussion with Frank Hoffman , in a podcast format. A recent symposium addressing the topic of austerity in the face of U.S. DoD budget cuts has elicited a number of short essays from leading American national security writers. For example, T.X. Hammes writes about an end to exquisite weapons and Steven Metz argues an expansion of the aperture through thinking big about defense budget cuts . A wiliness to …

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Brown is a General Service Officer with a regimental background in Combat Engineering. He has enjoyed a broad range postings, including a two year secondment with the United States Indo Pacific Command, Hawaii. Since completing Command and Staff College in 2015 he has been focussed almost exclusively on developing Army’s relationships with international partners and industry. He is the is current Chief of Army Scholar. … Nicholas …

The Australia of 2020 is amid a health and economic crisis that it did not fully anticipate, after a bushfire emergency of such significance that wartime provisions for a military response were required, while witnessing dramatic shifts in the geostrategic environment. The complexity of circumstances defies memory, with events of historic scale and significance. It has been a challenge for the Army, as part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), to respond to this confluence of problems. This is not a …

We have been a favoured isle, with many natural advantages for many decades, but we have not seen the conflation of global, economic and strategic uncertainty now being experienced here in Australia and in our region since the existential threat we faced when the global and regional order collapsed in the 1930s and 1940’s. This is a sobering thought, and it’s something that I have reflected on quite a lot lately as we’ve considered the dire economic circumstances we face. That period of the 1930’s has been …

Lieutenant General Sir Vernon Ashton Hobart Sturdee, KBE, CB, DSO (16 April 1890 – 25 May 1966) was an Australian Army commander who served two terms as Chief of the General Staff. A regular officer of the Royal Australian Engineers who joined the Militia in 1908, he was one of the original Anzacs during the First World War, participating in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. In the campaign that followed, he commanded the 5th Field Company, before going on to lead the 8th Field Company and the 4th …

On 1 July, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister announced the release of the Defence Strategic Update (DSU) and the 2020 Force Structure Plan in response to ‘the most consequential strategic realignment in our region since the World War Two’ . The DSU acknowledges the ideas set forth in the Defence White Paper 2016 (DWP2016) and sets out a framework for the realignment of Australia’s national defence strategy. ‘ It is the Government’s intent that Australia take greater responsibility for our own …

The West, typified by the ‘Five eyes’ members of NATO and their respective security communities, has rediscovered statecraft. Of course statecraft, and its utility over millennia of civilisation, never actually went anywhere. We were merely blinded by hubris in the post-cold war unipolar moment of the last three decades. Others, informed by a different context, somehow missed the ‘end of history’ and carried on as before. In response our militaries appear like old boxers in Jimmy Sharman’s tent , lurching …

The late Coral Bell’s 2005 APSI paper ‘ Living with Giants, Finding Australia’s place ’ in a more complex world was prescient. The recently published 2020 Defence Strategic Update  and  2020 Force Structure Plan are contemporary policy responses to the geo-strategic circumstances foreseen by Bell 15 years ago. They address the risks to Australian security and national interests from changing power relativities and great power competition in the Indo-Pacific. Yet history teaches that effective deterrence …

Army’s vision of Accelerated Warfare heralds changes in war and international circumstances and directs members to discuss and debate ideas. Analysis published by ASPI , IFRS and AFA highlights changing geostrategic circumstances and environmental conditions to call for new approaches to defending Australia. Questions of force preparedness and scaling for unforeseen events loom large. Proposed roles for the Army range from securing offshore bases for naval and air forces, through regional constabulary …

The Coronavirus Pandemic The World Health Organisation warned that the ‘number of new daily cases worldwide had hit a new high on 07 June, a sign that the pandemic appeared to be worsening.’ South America is the new epicentre of the virus, Brazil has recorded over 70,000 cases to date (at the time of publishing). The global situation suggests a ‘return to normal’ is unlikely this year. The Pacific Islands remain largely free of the virus, igniting regional discussions about restarting the tourist industry …