The Edge

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.

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.

ACSC(J): An A-Z Guide from a Student Perspective.

Will you be attending the Australian Command and Staff College (Joint) (ACSC) course in 2019? Or have you just been selected for 2020? If the answer is yes, then you’ll want to read this unofficial guide to the ACSC posted on The Cove. It offers an excellent tool for prospective students. As the author states, the guide is written from a student’s perspective and covers a range of topics in a handy A-Z format.

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.

Us as the Enemy: Jihadism and the Strategic Narrative of Anti-Westernism

Delivered during the Chief of Army’s Land Forces Conference 2018, Ms Theodorakis’ lecture highlights how jihadists adhere to a worldview that has painted the West as a morally corrupt enemy, and the jihadists themselves – despite their involvement in such atrocities as extra-judical killings, beheadings – are the ethical actors trying to bring about a more just world.

Australian Links

Useful JPME Links - Australia.

Overseas Links

Useful JPME Links - Overseas.

Social Contracts and the Australian Civil-Military Relationship

In Australia, troop deaths in combat remind the public of the terms of employment of Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and raise the question of commensurate compensation. One community group is committed to the task of developing a ‘military covenant’ to articulate these terms and compensations based on the idea that the ‘unique nature’ of military service is an invocation of a social contract. But is a social contract really at the heart the Australian civil-military relationship?

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.