The Edge

Understanding the Women, Peace and Security agenda

2020 is a milestone year for the 'Women, Peace and Security' agenda. Chief of Army Scholar, Lyndsay Freeman outlines the basics of this agenda, and how the ADF implements its core principles of supporting women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, prioritising their protection in humanitarian crises, and increasing women’s leadership and decision-making.

A Year in the Life of a Staff Officer and a General

Many field grade officers will serve as a Staff Officer / Military Assistant during their career within a single service, joint headquarters, or in an interdepartmental position. This article offers our perspective on the working relationship between Staff Officer and General. We hope it will be useful to those who are stepping into these roles in the future.

Synchronising Counterinsurgency Ops with Effective Intelligence

All combat operations need real-time, concrete intelligence, but the counterinsurgency operations’ (COINOPS) margin of error runs thinnest. In their fast, multidimensional context, COINOPS demand more comprehensive intelligence at platoon/company levels than conventional warfare does. This article explores the need for tactical unit leaders fighting insurgencies to have more intelligence assets available in the field in order to offer swift analyses to aid decision making in highly fluid environments.

Scharnhorst and Professional Mastery

To me, being 'professional' has meant striving for excellence at my everyday job. Until I attended Command and Staff Course at the Australian War College last year, I did not appreciate that being good at my job was not the same as being a military professional. The course broadened my understanding; being a professional requires one to embrace continual learning in all aspects of the profession. I became conscious that through professional mastery, individuals, even those in junior roles, can influence organisational outcomes beyond their job.

Loose Lips Bring Ships: Operations Security in Operation Sovereign Borders

OPSEC requires constant monitoring to ensure it addresses the identified vulnerabilities and mitigates the assessed risks. It may be that this needs to occur not only in the chain of command, but by Defence publications as well.

Australia, Korea and ASEAN: Forging Ahead Together

Photo courtesy SBS Australia from the first ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, 2018

The Importance Of Strategically Focused Force Design

BRIGADIER IAN LANGFORD- DIRECTOR GENERAL FUTURE LAND WARFARE

“People, Ideas, Machines…in that order!”

Colonel John Boyd

Michael Pezzullo’s seven gathering storms: national security in the 2020s

Mr Michael Pezzullo, Secretary, Department of Home Affairs, addressed the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on 13 March 2019 and provided a framework for considering emerging security risks - the 'future stormy possibilities' - into the next decade. This article is reprinted from 'The Mandarin' (image: Wordpress.com)

US Defense Implications of Expanding China

This U.S. DoD report assesses China’s global expansion efforts and the implications for the U.S. in terms of military access, logistics, force posture and training. The report has generated discussion and various assessments can be found online across the national security community.

Australian Interagency Preparedness Framework

As Australia’s involvement in international response and recovery operations has increased over the past decade, so has the number of government agencies contributing specialist capabilities and expertise to these operations. In this context, the need for effective interaction and enhanced preparedness between agencies is crucial to the success and effectiveness of operations.

Leave No Dark Corner

This article explores high-tech surveillance systems being used in China to monitor and shape its population. The technology demonstrates China’s push to become the world leader in artificial intelligence.

Where should we focus our security efforts?

Australians have fought in global conflicts for over a century. We’re in Afghanistan and the Middle East still. The argument is that these far-away wars advance our national interest. But is Australian security better served by focussing on regional alliances?