
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.

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]

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?
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Joint Professional Military Education (JPME)
The Australian Joint Professional Military Education Continuum is Australia’s system to develop mastery in the Profession of Arms and aims to cultivate an intellectual edge in warfighting. The Joint Professional Military Education Continuum comprises:

The Value Proposition for Developing a Future Intellectual Edge
Mick Ryan offers a new ‘value proposition’ for the intellectual development of military personnel for conflict in the 4th industrial revolution.

Thoughts from The Edge
Mick Ryan is the Commander of the Australian Defence College. This column from Ryan and his contributors focusses on intellectually preparing members of the profession of arms for strategic competition and future conflict.

Links to Follow
Twitter feeds and podcasts to follow.

Journals
Recommended publications.

Australian Links
Useful JPME Links - Australia.

Overseas Links
Useful JPME Links - Overseas.

North Korea’s Military Capability
This article is a Backgrounder document produced by the US Council on Foreign Relations outlining North Korea’s military capabilities with a particular focus on unconventional weapons. The article addresses the current state and source of origin of North Korea’s current arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their delivery platforms.