The Edge

Let the War Games Begin!

Let the War (Games) Begin!'

Two gaming enthusiasts roll the dice at the Australian Command and Staff College to demonstrate how wargames can be a creative engagement and learning tool that enhances the learning experience.

Australia’s Military Strategic Challenges – Close to Home

The 16 September 2021 announcement of an enhanced trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) confirmed beyond any remaining doubt that the Australian Government considers its strategic environment to have permanently changed. The 2020 Defence Strategic Update presaged the announcement by highlighting a number of developments which had swiftly altered the strategic landscape of the Indo-Pacific region since the publication of Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper.

The Art of Pacifism in the Conduct of War

For some, pacifism is a dirty word, shorthand for an unwillingness to fight on behalf of your country. However, pacifism is not just about being anti-war or anti-fighting. It is also about how not to get into a war. It is this latter meaning of pacifism that I draw on in this essay to discuss ethical issues in security strategy, not to undermine the willingness to fight but to consider the pragmatic tools that pacifism provides to prevent the need to fight. I am an amateur boxer, so I understand the inclination to fight and the desire to confront an adversary with force.

Three words that conjure dangerous oversimplification

The Defence Strategic Update of 2020 provided three words that neatly encapsulate Government’s strategic objectives. The words also capture the raison d'etre of the Australian Defence Force and the tasks it is likely to execute in a period of ‘the most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War’.^[1]

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.