The Perry Group
2020 Papers

This year has been the third year that we have run the Perry Group elective at the Australian War College. The group aims to hone a more forward-thinking and creative mindset in our Defence leaders, using science fiction, so that this can be applied to futures oriented. It also provides the opportunity for War College students to research, and develop a group paper on, future Defence capability outside of the normal War College continuum.

This year again, we sought CDF guidance on the topics that Perry Group members might explore.

Each group that produced a paper was guided by directing staff at the War College. They were also allocated a subject matter expert from within VCDF Group who provided guidance on work that had already been done, and who also assisted in focussing the groups on key areas that would add most value to the work of Defence’s modernisation process.

Each paper contains an executive summary up front and a series of recommendations that may be useful to prompt further discussion in different working groups and committees across Defence.

I have left the papers largely ‘unfiltered’; I want to ensure that they remain an accurate representation of the views of our War College students. There has been some standardisation and editing, but the key ideas and themes in each paper remain unchanged.

I trust you find these papers insightful and enjoyable. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute again to the development of our future Australian Defence Force.

M.B. Ryan
Major General
Commander, Australian Defence College

15 September 2020