Messing With the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News   Written by: Clint Watts Harper, 2018,  ISBN 9780062795984, 304pp Reviewed by Major Lee Hayward Messing With the Enemy is a contemporaneous look at our hyper-connected world, the way that the rise in social media has enabled state and non-state actors to influence individuals, and how these actors potentially can affect Defence, government, business and individuals. Clint Watts points out that state …

The Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations Volume 1: The Long Search for Peace, Observer Missions and Beyond, 1947–2006   Written by: Peter Londey, Rhys Crawley and David Horner, Cambridge University Press, 2019, ISBN 9781108482981, 899pp Reviewed by Jason Thomas Despite being entitled ‘Volume 1’, this is one of the final volumes of the Australian War Memorial’s peacekeeping series to be released. With a title that matches its length (900 pages), it is a …

Making Warriors in a Global Era: An Ethnographic Study of the Norwegian Naval Special Operations Commando   Written by: Tone Danielson Lexington Books, 2018,  ISBN 9781498561815, 178pp Reviewed by Dr Kieran Stewart I am not even sure what our culture is today. So many things have changed. It might help us to have an outsider’s view and analyses. You know how things are normally done in the military; they [strategic level] send a hired consultant who will tell us ‘use this model, and then you will have …

  The Strategic Corporal Revisited: Challenges Facing Combatants in 21st Century Warfare Eds: David W Lovell and Deane-Peter Baker UCT Press, 2017, ISBN 9781775822202, 210pp Reviewed by Diana Clark Gill Edited books command a reader’s attention differently from single-author volumes. The former are beehives of perspectives, while the latter enjoy the force of a single mind. For this book, though, I endorse the editors’ choice of the group approach due to the complexity of the subject. The book’s …

Jeffrey Grey, who died in his sleep from a heart attack on 26 July 2016, was an amazing man. Son of a general, he had a lifelong interest in the Australian Army and absolutely no interest in formally joining it. He used to remark that he was ‘of’ the Army, frequently ‘with’ the Army but never ‘in’ the Army. Fortunately for Army, he did not have to be in it to make a major contribution to its development and evolution. One of Jeffrey’s major frustrations was that he felt Army did training very well and …

Abstract Operational contracting is a common yet contentious component of military operations. The Australian Army recognises the role of contractors and has, to a degree, incorporated contractor services into its operational cycle. Although contractors are positioned to provide flexibility, responsiveness and cost-effectiveness to military operations, problems persist. The core conundrum is whether the use of contractors becomes either an expression of commercial capability or commercial dependency. …

Abstract ‌This article examines military concept writing in terms of explorative and intentional concepts and contends that militaries ought to be circumspect about writing the latter because of their disposition to suppress innovation. The article contends that intentional concepts might be useful for relatively simple problems for which the means and knowledge to solve a problem are already available to an armed force but they are inadequate for the complex problem of future force development because …

Abstract A clear objective of the Australian Defence Force Total Workforce Model is to address cultural barriers that exist between permanent and reserve units in the Australian Army and to facilitate the combining of military and civilian careers. This article highlights ways in which social research into the distinctive military identity and service experience of reservists can facilitate this strategic direction. By drawing on existing international research on reservists the article provides the …

Abstract Nearly three decades after conducting landings at Rabaul and Gallipoli, the Australian Army undertook its next amphibious operation. 1 Over the next three years, Army mastered amphibious warfare, progressing from a rudimentary battalion-sized landing in October 1942 to a division-level amphibious assault in July 1945. The experience of the 2/12th Battalion – which participated in both of those landings – demonstrates how a shortfall in providing specialist amphibious training for infantry units …

‘Combat units drawn from the conventional brigades and divisions of the IRGC have been fighting on the front lines alongside Syrian and Iraqi militias and Lebanese Hezbollah since October 2015. The units appear to be deploying as cadres – bringing most of their officers… and plugging into Iraqi, Syrian, and Hezbollah militia groups that serve as their foot soldiers.’ 1 Abstract Western powers are not the only nations attempting to influence the balance of power in the Middle East through …