The Edge

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]

The Competition Prism

“Our traditional way that we differentiate between peace and war is insufficient …….we think of being at peace or war…our adversaries don’t think that way.” 

General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 21 September and 5 October 2016 

ADF Concept for Command and Control of the Future Force

FOREWORD

by DL Johnston, AO Vice Admiral, RAN

Vice Chief of the Defence Force

Lessons for Military Planning in 21st Century Warfare

The Importance Of Strategically Focused Force Design

BRIGADIER IAN LANGFORD- DIRECTOR GENERAL FUTURE LAND WARFARE

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

Colonel John Boyd

Time to Review the Rings

Dr David Connery proposes a new way to conceive the levels of war, building on the work of historian Michael Handel. Does a liner model offer a more useful way to apply doctrinal levels in an Australian context?

Churchill Fellowship Report 2017

This report highlights recommendations that represent an opportunity for the ADF to enhance capacity for coordinated joint maritime warfare planning and execution, and provide a platform for Maritime Trade Operations employment as a niche warfare capability.

First Principles Review - Creating One Defence

The Review Team were tasked with ensuring that Defence is fit for purpose and is able to deliver against its strategy with the minimum resources necessary. Using a structured framework, the team have conducted an end-to-end holistic review based on the outcomes required of Defence and founded on the first principles agreed by the review team.

17 - 18 Annual Report

This is the Secretary of Defence and Chief of the Defence Force’s performance report to the Minister for Defence, the Parliament of Australia and the Australian public for the 2017–18 financial year. The report addresses the purposes and outcomes of the Department of Defence, including the Australian Defence Force—collectively known as Defence.

2018-19 Defence Corporate Plan

The 2018–19 Defence Corporate Plan sets out Defence’s role, objectives and functions and describes how we will measure our performance in achieving our Purposes. Performance against the Corporate Plan will be reported through annual performance statements, to be included in the Defence Annual Report for 2018–19.

The Australian Military and Logistics: When Preparedness Equals Survival

The material comprises a 2014 interview with Air Vice Marshall John Blackburn (Retired), in which he poses a number of questions relating to the resilience of Australia’s Defence logistics capabilities. The questions and tacit solutions he proposes have become more relevant given recent instability in the South China Sea and the current shifts in US foreign policy.