The Edge

Streamlining Air Land Operations for Better Outcomes

Abstract

A Fistful of Dollars: the Changing Paradigm of the PMSC and Mercenary in the Modern Battlespace

How will a new security and economic epoch affect Australia

Beware the Intent of a Eurasian Entente

The most pressing national security and economic challenge facing Australia is an emerging epoch in which a Eurasian bloc changes the power and economic direction of the globe.

The suffering child in the basement of our civility—on the illusion of jus in bello

The Embed

I am an embed ally
A chameleon of war
I do not wear your emblems
a diff’rent loyl’ty I’ve swore

I’m lost amongst your accents 
Your different words and names
I’m searching for my own tribe
While this land around me flames

I am an embed ally 
I blend into your team
I drink the quenching koolaid^[1]
I know… a tad extreme!

You welcome me, as your own
I know you’ve got my back
Brother, sister, side-by-side
You’re there to take the slack 

How Australia’s ethical failures with Timor-Leste should inform a future shaping strategy for the Indo-Pacific

Australian military planners are grappling with a grey-zone Chinese shaping strategy that threatens to disrupt^[1] ‘stability, security and sovereignty’^[2] in the Indo-Pacific. China’s strategy utilises a whole-of-government approach to influence competitors and potential partners through all means short of war.

Defining ‘Right’: What are the ADF’s Ethics?

Overture

Rethinking Strategies in Modern Urban Conflicts

The increasingly blurred line between state and non-state actors in tight urban warfare zones requires allied forces to have clearly defined and fully informed communication and command chains to minimise unintended consequences.

The Centre of Gravity in Context

Focusing upon the military idea of what a Centre of Gravity is, the article offers some background into Clausewitz's term to be able to better understand it today. The article finishes off by suggesting Clausewitz's idea of a Centre of Gravity remains relevant today and then discuses current doctrine and how military planners should be focusing upon the linking ideas of a CoG, not the idea itself.

The Peril of Extremes: on moral relativism and ethnocentrism

Civil-Military Relations in Australia: Past, Present and Future

This Profession of Arms Seminar on the subject of Australian civil–military relations is intended to revive interest in a neglected but important field of study. For four decades, the field of Australian civil–military relations has been an outlier in defence scholarship, a situation which has hampered a better understanding of how policy, strategy and operations are formulated by Australian politicians, military professionals and public servants.

Soldiers Breaking Windows

In the rush to provide an organisational response to allegations of violent war crimes committed by its soldiers, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) risks applying an educational solution to a behavioural problem. This essay proposes instead to examine the triggers and contributing factors behind the behaviour, and to transform the practical training landscape to better prepare soldiers for the intangible pressures they face on the battlefield.