Abstract Over the past decade, interest in human enhancement has waxed and waned. The initial surge of interest and funding, driven by the US Army’s desire for a ‘Future Force Warrior’ has partly given way to the challenges of meeting operational demands abroad. However the ethical opportunities provided by soldier enhancement demand that investigation of its possibilities continue. Benefits include enhanced decision-making, improved force capability, reduced force size and lower casualty rates. These …

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 East Asian Multilateralism: Prospects for Regional Stability , Kent E Calder and Francis Fukuyama (eds), The John Hopkins University Press, ISBN 9780801088496, 281 pp. (Distributed in Australia by Footprint Books)   Military Ethics , …

Carry Me Home: The Life and Death of Private Jake Kovco   Written by: Dan Box, Allen & Unwin, 2008, 288 pp Reviewed by: Wing Commander Terence O’Connor I approached the review of this book with a deep sense of foreboding having read Geoffrey Robertson QC’s reference to ‘institutionalised dickheadery’ in the publicity release. I had expectations of yet another ‘public flogging’ of the integrity and competency of the ADF. Having regard to what occurred during and after the repatriation of Private Jake Kovco, …

The Battle for Wau: New Guinea’s Frontline 1942–43   Written by: Phillip Bradley, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2008, 285 pp Reviewed by: John Moremon In any war, and within any nation remembering war, there will be some actions over-commemorated and others under-acknowledged. In the latter group rests the Battle for Wau, in the mountainous hinterland of south-eastern Papua–New Guinea. The guerrilla campaign in 1942 might have gone unnoticed by the public but for cameraman Damien Parer venturing …

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban   Written by: Sarah Chayes, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 2006, 386 pp. Reviewed by: Lieutenant Commander Glenn Kerr The Australian Government has been committed to military involvement in Afghanistan since the aftermath of the al-Qaeda attacks on the continental United States on 11 September 2001. Despite our strong military presence, Afghanistan is a country largely unknown to most Australians, peopled by Mujahideen freedom …

To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918   Written by: Edward G Lengel, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008, 512 pp. Reviewed by: Dr Douglas V Johnson II Ed Lengel has gathered together a large collection of first person accounts of this campaign and has woven them together with just enough context to produce a ‘nice’ piece of fabric. I say ‘nice’ because this fabric is basically gray in background, but splotched from top to bottom with battlefield detitrus, and the offal of human remains. If the intent …

Duty First: A History of the Royal Australian Regiment (2nd edition)   Wriitten by: David Horner and Jean Bou (eds.),  Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008, 526 pp. Reviewed by: Karl James In the days following the end of the Second World War three new Australian infantry battalions were raised. The 65th Battalion opened its headquarters at Balikpapan, on Borneo’s east coast, in the Netherlands East Indies, on 11 October 1945. Two weeks later, on 26 October, the 66th Battalion was formed on Labuan in northern …

Ethics Education in the Military   Written by: Paul Robinson, Nigel de Lee and Don Carrick (eds.), Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008, 224 pp. Jointly reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Alan Howes, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Hampson, Chaplain David Jackson CSM, Dr Stephen Coleman, Chaplain Clyde Appleby RAN, and Flight Lieutenant Alyssa Badgery There are many who will agree that Ethics Education in the Military is long overdue as required reading for those who deliver ethics training and education programs in …

China’s Rise and the Balance of Influence in Asia By: William W Keller and Thomas G Rawski (eds.),  University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2007, 284 pp. America and China: Asia-Pacific Rim Hegemony in the Twenty-First Century,  By: Randall Doyle,  Lexington Books, Plymouth, 2007, 199 pp. ‘China’s rise’ is an increasingly prevalent term used by academics, politicians, political commentators and economists alike to describe China’s rapid emergence in recent decades as an economic, political and military …

Abstract This article examines the enlistment of indigenous people into the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. Despite official prohibitions, the author estimates that close to a thousand Indigenous men eventually enlisted. The author demonstrates how their attempts were made easier as racial prejudices gave way in the face of the authorities’ purely pragmatic concern with replacing the AIF’s appalling losses of 1916 and 1917. Three of these Indigenous enlistees—the Blackman …