Core Areas of Study

Dr. Heather Skousgaard gives an excellent, easily accessible taster to the importance of cultural intelligence (CQ) and why it is nested within the Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) continuum. Stay engaged for further discussion on this topic by Dr. Skousgaard on the Forge!

In his third installment for The Forge, Ben McLennan discusses the enduring cooperative endeavour between the Australian Defence Force and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Ben presents us with a contemporary case study in cross-cultural leadership, collaboration, and cooperation. Stay tuned at the end of the week for the lessons-learned for this case study of working 'better together'...

In this piece, Ben McLennan discusses the pressing need to educate the Army’s workforce on how to think (and how not to). In his discussion, McLennan cogently addresses systems thinking, inherent biases and the need for open-mindedness as part of understanding the recipe to transform Army’s thinking. While specific to McLennan’s Army experience, his observations are equally applicable to other Services and anyone who aspires to think in a way that harnesses a competitive advantage.

This article examines military concept writing in terms of explorative and intentional concepts and contends that militaries ought to be circumspect about writing the latter because of their disposition to suppress innovation.

Ethics and morality are often seen as esoteric concepts, and are often misunderstood. Just like good manners, everyone thinks that they have been correctly taught what is right or wrong, good or bad, but the reality is that most people do not have a framework for understanding the conceptual underpinning of why they hold these particular beliefs. In order to behave ethically and know the difference between ethical extremes one must be aware of the different perspectives of ethics.