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Abstract Commanders in the Australian Army pride themselves on sound military decision- making based on thorough analysis of the threat, terrain and their higher commander’s intent. Yet this self-assurance is misleading. The employment of existing military planning tools should lead commanders to develop adaptable tactical solutions that account for the vulnerabilities in a given threat system. However, tactical military commanders often do not conduct a detailed appreciation of the threat system or, if …
Abstract Although not deliberate, a significant risk to Army’s operational security is the current use of mobile telephony by senior Army leaders. Senior Army leaders use mobile telephony to receive and provide information that is distilled, timely and accurate, offering an enemy force or a strategic competitor high value information for little effort. Conversely, significant investment has been made to secure Army’s tactical communications, where information is mostly disaggregated and short- term. Some …
Climax at Gallipoli: The Failure of the August Offensive Written by: Rhys Crawley, University of Oklahoma Press, 2014 ISBN 9780806152066, 384pp, Reviewed by: Brigadier Chris Roberts (Ret’d), AM, CSM Mounted to break the deadlock resulting from the failed April landings, the August Offensive at Gallipoli was the largest operation undertaken on the peninsula. In the eyes of many contemporaries, and several subsequent historians, it came close to success; an offensive that failed by a whisker to bring the …
The Backroom Boys: Alfred Conlon and Army’s Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs Written by: Graeme Sligo, Big Sky Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781921941122, 416pp, Reviewed by: John Donovan Although Colonel Graeme Sligo has written an interesting story about the Australian Army’s Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, the real story that needs to be told is that of the directorate’s enigmatic director Alfred Conlon, at least beyond the glimpses into his personality that appear in the book. The …
Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Written by: Daniel P. Bolger, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014, ISBN 9780544370487, 544pp, Reviewed by: Brigadier Simon Stuart Recently retired US Lieutenant General Dan Bolger’s provocatively titled book Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars ultimately fails to prove its thesis. But, it does not matter. Counterintuitively, the value of Bolger’s book does not rely upon congruence between its title …
Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the Asia–Pacific Written by: Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson (eds), Naval Institute Press, 2014 ISBN 9781612514642, 226pp, Reviewed by: Andrew Carr There’s an old joke military officials like to tell: amateurs do strategy; professionals do logistics. For most of us self-proclaimed ‘amateurs’, how the United States positions itself in the Asia–Pacific is one of the key strategic questions of our time. As Carnes Lord and Andrew S. Erickson’s new …
Defence Planning and Uncertainty: Preparing for the Next Asia–Pacific War Written by: Stephan Frühling, Routledge, 2014 ISBN 9780415605731, 240pp, Reviewed by: Lori Lucietto As the Indo–Pacific region continues to grow, both economically and militarily, a growing number of countries in the region and beyond are facing challenges in their strategic planning. Stephan Frühling asks, ‘How can countries determine what kind of military force is needed if threats are uncertain and history is full of …
The Chauvel Prize is an annual award presented to an eligible recipient whose published Australian Army Journal article best contributes to the debate on future land warfare. The prize is named after Sir Henry George Chauvel (1865–1945), more usually known as Sir Harry Chauvel, who was the first Australian to reach the rank of Lieutenant General and later General. He was also the first to lead a corps and, as commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and …
The Next Great War?: The Roots of World War I and the Risk of U.S.–China Conflict Edited by Richard N. Rosencrance and Steven Miller, The MIT Press, 2015 ISBN 9780262028998, 313pp, US$27.00 A century ago, Europe’s diplomats mismanaged the crisis triggered by the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, plunging the world into the First World War, which killed millions, toppled dynasties, and destroyed empires. Today, as the hundredth anniversary of the Great War prompts renewed debate about war’s …