The Edge

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.

Pakistan’s Unconventional War Failure

Since 2009 the Afghan government, with international support, has pursued a policy of opening the door to a political solution to the war in their nation. That policy decision was backed up by a massive push to professionalize the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and to continue to militarily pressure the taliban and others on the battlefield. The underlying premise was that the Taliban movement (senior and low-level members) would be forced to react to the legitimate Afghan government olive branch in many ways.

More than just a hashtag: the criticality of developing an Intellectual Edge

The current landscape

For some reason, the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO) seems particularly susceptible to buzzwords. It would appear that for any new idea to have a chance of sprouting on what can often be somewhat barren ground, then it must have a catchy moniker. The prevailing thought seems to be that without one, an idea has little chance to gain traction against all the other good ideas being touted in Defence Headquarters.

Reflections on Command

This short, and hopefully helpful addition to The Forge, targets those who are about to assume unit command appointments. It should be broadly relevant to other levels of command, as well as a broader audience interested in military command approaches. Rich Barrett.

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 

Defence Entrepreneur’s Forum Australia 2019 -Sep30 and Oct01

Interested in pitching or participating at the Defence Entrepreneur’s Forum Australia 2019 (#DEFAus19)?

Sir James Rowland Seminar at ADFA - 28 August 2019

In collaboration with the Air Power Development Centre, ACSACS is pleased to announce the details of the latest Sir James Rowland Seminar.

• Theme: Australia's enduring approach to Air-mindedness and Aviation Culture
• Keynote speaker: Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d)
• Tickets are free, and the event is fully catered.
• Register at Eventbrite

ADF Concept for Command and Control of the Future Force

FOREWORD

by DL Johnston, AO Vice Admiral, RAN

Vice Chief of the Defence Force

Learning Vulnerability

Learning to love learning requires passion and persistence. It can be a hard road, but intellectual endeavour is not just a personal challenge, it’s a challenge for the entire military community.

Mental Models - Part II - Cooperation, Competition and Conflict

Mental models help our thinking to creatively apply force and craft durable and comprehensive strategies. We need to lift our thinking, and our doctrine, out of the peace-war mental model and into one that acknowledges constant competition and its temporal conditions of cooperation and conflict.

Mental Models - Part I - Rethinking the Peace-War Spectrum

The world is not neat. International competition is intensifying across all elements of national power including multi-instrument statecraft below the threshold of war. We need mental models to think simply about complex challenges, but that do not make us lose sight of our multi-faceted and changing world.

The Importance Of Strategically Focused Force Design

BRIGADIER IAN LANGFORD- DIRECTOR GENERAL FUTURE LAND WARFARE

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

Colonel John Boyd