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Autumn-Winter 2008
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Editorial
Recycling past errors:
A perennial
and pervasive cultural belief in the Australian community is that
conservative governments meet their national defence responsibilities
better than Labor ones. The truth, with limited exceptions either way,
is that governments of both political persuasions have been equally
prone to neglect defence investment and generally always keen to spend
revenue elsewhere where the political and electoral advantages are much
greater. Arguably this is an inherent consequence of our three-year
parliamentary cycle.
After some
questionable budgetary legerdemain in the 2008/09 budget, the Rudd
Government needs to ensure that the 2009/10 defence budget dispels
rather than reinforces the entrenched belief that Labor governments are
unreliable about meeting their national defence responsibilities.
Letters to the Editor:
Appalling media coverage of many defence issues;
soldiers are wounded not injured; need for the media to employ
journalists with experience and understanding of defence issues;
comparison of national interest in our Olympics team with general
uninterest in the defence force; confusion of infantry and Special
Forces roles; needless concerns about operational security affecting the
release of information the public need to know in order to understand
why we are fighting; ivory-tower academic opinions on submarines would result in
an unbalanced defence force.
Commentary:
Some pea and thimble trickery in the 2008/09
defence budget mean that the Rudd government will have to work harder in
the 2009/10 budget to restore confidence that they are properly managing
their defence responsibilities.
By not supplementing the Department of
Defence for the cost of overseas wars and peacekeeping operations, and
making these costs come out of the existing budgetary allocation
instead, the Rudd Government has in effect cut around $A1.3 billion from
the allocation. This is despite Labor assurances throughout 2007 that if
elected, they would not reduce defence investment because they understood
that sustained and sufficient funding was required to cancel out a very long period of
neglect under governments of both political persuasions.
The government is correct in not publicly
discussing an
increase
to our military commitment to Afghanistan at present while so many of the
Western European members of NATO are not meeting their alliance or moral
obligations in this regard. Eventually, however, this will need to
change.
If the
Netherlands ceases to be the
senior ISAF partner in Oruzgan Province
in the second half of 2010, it would be in Australia's operational and strategic
interests, and probably that of the Afghans, if we assumed the senior partner responsibility rather than the USA.
In
deterring or fighting all conflicts, the option of
escalating a war in
order to end it remains a legitimate and proven strategy.
Calls to promote General Sir John Monash posthumously to field marshal
are misguided. Even worse, they exemplify some of the serious problems
in public debate on current defence issues that hamper such debate from
being as informed as it should be.
Because so many Australians have little or no knowledge of our military
history, contemporary public debate on defence and strategic policy issues is
often marred by politicians, single-issue activists and other
polemicists ignoring or misrepresenting historical facts that are
inconvenient to their argument.
Articles:
Towards a general theory of geopolitics
in our time: Phillip Bobbitt and the rise of the market-state
by Dr Paul Monk
Ships, SLOCs and Security at Sea by
Dr James Boutilier
Saving the nation or serving the
government? by
Ric Smith
Afghanistan myths and legends by
Major General Jim Molan (Retd)
Reviews and Review Essays:
Gallipoli: Attack from the Sea
by Dr Victor Rudenno
(a review essay by Vice Admiral Rob Walls (Retd))
Gallipoli Sniper: The Life of Billy Sing
by John Hamilton
(reviewed by Major Kenneth Thomas)
The Battle for Wau: New Guinea's
Frontline 1942-1943
by Phillip Bradley
(reviewed by Dr Michael McKernan)
Song of the Beauforts: No 100 Squadron
RAAF and Beaufort Bomber Operations by
Colin King
(a review essay by Commodore Jack McCaffrie (Retd))
Selling the Korean War: Propaganda,
Politics and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950-1953 by
Steven Casey
(reviewed by Professor Peter Edwards)
The Battle at Ngok Tavak: A Bloody Defeat
in South Vietnam, 1968 by Bruce
Davies
(Reviewed by Major Bill Deane (Retd))
Why We're Losing the War on Terror
by Professor Paul Rogers
(reviewed by Brian Agnew)
The Oxford Companion to Australian
Military History
(second edition) edited by Professor Peter Dennis, Professor Jeffrey
Grey, Dr Ewan Morris and Professor Robin Prior with Dr Jean Bou
(reviewed by Neil James)
The Collins Class Submarine Story: Steel,
Spies and Spin by Peter Yule and
Derek Woolner
(a review essay by Rear Admiral James Goldrick)
The Three-Trillion Dollar War: The True
Cost of the Iraq Conflict by Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor
Linda Pilmes
(reviewed by Neil James)
The Emerging Global Order: Australian
Foreign Policy in the 21st Century by Senator Russell Trood
(reviewed by Ian Dudgeon)
Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between
China, India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade by Bill Emmott
(a review essay by Andrew Shearer)
Securing the State: Reforming the
National Security Decision-making Process at the Civil-Military Nexus
by Colonel Christopher P. Gibson
(a review essay by Lieutenant General Peter Leahy (Retd))
Ethics Education in the Military
edited by Paul Robinson, Nigel de Lee and Don Carrick
(reviewed by Dr Hugh Smith)
Obituaries:
Sir Charles Walter Michael
Court, AK, KBE,
KCMG
Major General Kenneth Joseph
Taylor, AO
(Retd)
Summer 2007/08
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Blogging a Dead Horse: Can Australia
persist with our military effort in Afghanistan, and help win that war,
without much improved standards of informed public debate in Australia
about our commitment?
As to facts to dispel the myths plaguing the debate, and even within the obvious constraints of operational security, much
more information could and should be released by the Government and the
ADF to allow informed debate on the issues.
Letters to the Editor:
Deputy prime-ministers and their varying
interest and expertise in defence issues, prime-ministerial portfolio expertise
before becoming PM, where should the constitutional war-making power
sit, need for sustained defence investment not another round of budget
cuts, strategic effects of next-generation submarines questioned, debate
over the future air combat capability and its too-often too-personal
nature, argument mapping defence capability debates to expose
polemicists, using ancient history in modern strategic debate,
condescending and even racist attitudes underpinning Australian strategy in World
War II, appalling media coverage of many defence issues.
Commentary:
Asia's strategic architecture needs a
common
security mechanism along the lines of the Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). This focus was unfortunately lost amidst
loose terminology by the Government, and media blather, about developing wider-ranging but
therefore much less likely economic and political groupings in the
region.
The new Parliamentary Secretary for Defence
Procurement, Greg Combet, is doing a good job. The appointment should be
upgraded to a junior ministry to reflect the importance of the task and
the financial delegations involved. It would also help retain Combet in
the position for a useful period rather than him moving elsewhere on
promotion and incurring the risk of him being replaced by a dud.
There are numerous professional, practical
and moral problems with renewed proposals to hire
temporary guest
workers from South Pacific countries as soldiers in the Army.
With the
expiry of the
unnecessary gag order negotiated in his plea bargain after
pleading guilty before a US Military Commission, David Hicks has no
legal restrictions from telling his side of the story. As with the
example of Mamdouh Habib, the sooner the Australian public can weigh up
Hicks account first-hand, and make its own judgements about him
directly, the better.
Updated
legislation has finally closed the technical loopholes and lack of
specific legislation that allowed Wilfred Burchett to escape prosecution
for assistance to the enemy in time of war in the 1950s and 1960s. This
lack of legislation also prevented David Hicks from being tried for
criminal offences in Australia and consequently delayed his release from
detention as a captured combatant at Guantanamo Bay. This is good news
for all Australians and especially comforting to members of our defence
force who have been badly let down by a succession of Australian
governments since the early 1950s on this issue.
Articles:
Achieving Our Strategic Sting: Bringing
on the Next-Generation Submarines
by Rear Admiral Peter Briggs (Retd)
Afghanistan: How Much is Enough by
Major General Terry Liston (Retd)
The Future of Intelligence Support
to Government and the Australian Community by
Paul O'Sullivan
Warring Words: Taking the War on
Terrorism Seriously by Dr
Rod Lyon
Fallujah: Close Combat in Complex Terrain
by Dr Paul Monk
We Were Soldiers Once: The Decline of the
Royal Australian Infantry Corps by
Major Jim Hammett
Reviews and Review Essays:
The First Day of the Blitz, September 7,
1940
by Peter Stansky
(reviewed by Dr John McCarthy)
Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore,
1942
by Dr Alan Warren
(reviewed by Glenn Wahlert)
Duty First: A History of the Royal
Australian Regiment
by Professor David Horner and Dr Jean Bou
(reviewed by Brigadier Chris Appleton (Retd))
HMAS Tobruk: Warship for Every Crisis by
Rear Admiral Ken Doolan (Retd)
(reviewed by Commodore Peter Leschen)
Doves Over the Pacific: In Pursuit
of Peace and Stability in
Bougainville by Reuben R.E. Bowd
(reviewed by Dr Bob Breen)
China's Naval Strategy in the 21st
Century: The Turn to Mahan by Dr James Holmes and Dr Toshi Yoshihara
(Reviewed by Commodore Jack McCaffrie (Retd))
The Circuit: An ex-SAS Soldier's True
Account of One of the Most Powerful and Secretive Industries Spawned by
the War on Terror by Bob Shepherd (with M.P. Sabga)
(reviewed by Tony Watts)
Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and
Morality in War by Dr Hugo Slim
(a review essay by Dr Hugh Smith)
Australia 2050: An Examination of
Australia's Condition, Outlook and Options for the First Half of the
21st Century by Gregory Copley, Andrew Pickford and Barry Patterson
(reviewed by Tom Magee)
Spring 2007
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Admitting past mistakes, not politicising history: Renewed
slanging matches between the new government and the new opposition over
past defence procurement decisions have sought to paint various blunders
or successes within purely party-political narratives, rather than
objectively examine what actually occurred and how the mistakes can be
prevented from recurring.
Letters to the Editor:
Deputy prime-ministers and their varying interest
and expertise in
defence issues, low number of war veterans in parliament causes concern
about first-hand knowledge of war,
further reform of the Department of Defence needed, defence expenditure myths
need exposing, prioritising
defence investment, comparison of the Singapore and DOA schools of
strategic thought, media
coverage of ADF operations, fairer indexation of ADF superannuation and
compensation payments.
Commentary:
The Rudd Government's introduction of
increased
ministerial oversight of the Department of Defence is a major reform
that has been too long delayed.
The
power to wage war is split between
the executive and the legislature in Westminster system parliamentary
democracies. These time-tested checks and balances are important.
Proposals by the minor parties in the Senate to
limit the Government's power to wage war, by requiring parliament to
authorise all deployments of the ADF outside Australian territory, are
impractical and need very
careful study on constitutional, strategic and moral grounds.
The
world-wide-web is a major threat to
totalitarian and authoritarian regimes generally. But it can also
undermine the ability of liberal democracies to wage war effectively by
giving aid and comfort to their enemies.
Modern counter-subversion
measures mean relearning
some old lessons, especially about reinforcing traditional messages about how
and why liberal democracies wage war.
Articles:
Australia's Strategic Sting: Maximising
Our Future Underwater Warfare Capability
by Rear Admiral Peter Briggs (Retd)
Australia's Strategic Outlook: A
Longer-term View by Peter Varghese
Updating International Humanitarian Law
and the Laws of Armed Conflict for the Wars of the 21st Century by
Associate Professor Gregory Rose
Unintended Consequences Haunt the United
States at War
by Associate Professor Ian Bickerton and Professor Emeritus Kenneth Hagan
Fixing Defence's Most Expensive Mis-step
by Robert Marlow
Tracked Arguments and Soft Ground:
Reflections on Public Argument About the Abrams Tank Decision by Dr
Paul Monk
Reviews:
The Battle of ANZAC Ridge: 25 April 1915
by Peter Williams
(reviewed by John Donovan)
Battle Order 204: A Bomber Pilot's Story
by Christobel Mattingley
(reviewed by Dr John McCarthy)
Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by Max Hastings
(reviewed by Dr Peter Stanley)
Going Back: Australian Veterans Return to
Viet Nam by Gary McKay
(reviewed by Dr Michael McKernan)
The President, The Pope and the Prime
Minister by John O'Sullivan
(reviewed by Michael O'Connor)
Guests of the Ayatollah: The West's First
Battle in the War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden
(reviewed by Neil James)
Obituaries:
Brigadier James Osmond
Furner, AO, CBE, DSM (Retd)
Major General Paul
Cullen, AC, CBE, DSO*, ED, FCA (Retd)
Winter 2007
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
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Editorial
Defence is a trust not a cash cow: Since Kevin
Rudd assumed the federal leadership of the Labor Party at the end of
2006 we have seen a pronounced move to fresh thinking on defence issues
within Labor circles. Coincidentally, or probably not, there has also
been increased bipartisan agreement on strategic policy and defence
capability development generally, Will this last?
Letters to the Editor: Opinion polling and its effect on the
development of military
strategy, APC upgrade project, Winograd Commission report,
perceptions of single-Service biases, Super Hornet purchase, East Timor, lessons from
the Singapore Strategy, Psychiatric casualties and suicide
Commentary:
Defence white papers in Australia have
rarely been followed through with sufficient funding to execute them.
Writing a new defence white paper in 2008 (a US presidential election
year) will be difficult. The process for preparing white papers must
also be reformed.
The US troop surge in Iraq has allowed new
tactics to be employed and they appear to be working.
Why is Australia in Iraq and why do some so
oppose the commitment?
It is wrong that ADF personnel can be
personally defamed, or sued for defamation, for doing their duty but must fund their own
legal action to obtain redress.
Why is the release of he report of the
Polger Review into defence force superannuation taking so long?
Articles:
Australian Defence Spending: As Good as it Gets?
by Dr Mark Thomson
Fresh Ideas for Future Challenges:
National Security Policy Under a Labor Government
by Kevin Rudd
Themistocles: Ancient thinking all at sea? by
Dr Paul Monk
The Sea-based Commonwealth
by Dr Norman Friedman
Australia's Oil Security
by Michael Richardson
Recognising Australian Peacekeeping
by Major General Tim Ford (Retd)
Tank Operations in Modern
Counter-Insurgency Warfare by Andrew Erskine
The Super Hornet Purchase: A Good Save to
a Poor Plan by Robert Marlow
Reviews:
25 April 1915: The Day the Anzac Legend
Was Born
by David Cameron
(reviewed by Glenn Wahlert)
Backs to the Wall: A Larrikin on the
Western Front by
George Dean Mitchell
With a foreword by Robert Macklin
(reviewed by Dr Michael Tyquin)
The Torch and the Sword: A History of the
Army Cadet Movement in Australia
by
Dr Craig Stockings
(reviewed by Dr Jean Bou)
A Critical Vulnerability: The Impact of
the Submarine Threat on Australia's Maritime Defence
1915-1954 by Dr
David Stevens
(reviewed by Richard Pelvin)
Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks by Leigh
Sales
(reviewed by Neil James)
The Defence Theory of Relativity by
Brigadier Brian Cooper
(Reviewed by Dr Mark Thomson)
Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the
Middle East 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren
(a review essay by Ric Smith)
Unintended Consequences: The United
States at War
by Professor Emeritus Kenneth J. Hagan and Associate Professor Ian J. Bickerton
(reviewed by Jamie Cullens)
Obituaries:
Major Leonard Oswald
Hansen, OAM (Retd)
Autumn 2007
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Disengagement, deficient debate and
defeat: Most Australians are so disengaged from
their defence force that they ignore the current wars we are fighting,
do not regard them as important, or see them as being fought by someone
else and not by Australia or themselves in any personal, community or
citizenship sense. This situation is dangerous in a democracy and needs to be reversed.
The Government and the Opposition need to co-operate on a bipartisan public education campaign
so informed national
debate on the issues concerned is possible.
Letters to the Editor: Proust Review,
Iraq, John Howard, David Hicks, tanks, outmoded strategic commentary,
next-generation submarines, counter-terrorism policies, psychiatric
trauma casualties, PTSD and the dangers of 'coaching' as to its
symptoms.
Commentary:
An explanation of the extensive ADA measures
undertaken to
investigate and adjudicate an allegation of
bias in Association commentary.
Real
joint command and control of ADF
operations and capability development is succeeding. Many
old-fashioned and/or out-of-touch commentators cannot understand this
integrated approach and continue to think
and speak of Navy, Army and Air Force capabilities (and their
contributions to
ADF operations) individually. Some even resent the largely successful
elimination of serious inter-Service rivalry, particularly because civilian
bureaucrats and others can no longer exploit such tensions to divide and
conquer the Services individually during bureaucratic gameplaying.
We need to understand our
strategic history
not perpetuate it. The recent telemovie Curtin unfortunately
concentrated on producing a dramatic story rather than accurately
recounting the enduring strategic lessons of the late 1941 - early 1942 period.
Some of the bad lessons have echoed down to the present day and many of
the good ones are forgotten or discounted because of the 'Curtin-alone'
myth.
Recent statements by some so-called
community leaders purporting to represent Muslim-Australians have
continued to criticise counter-terrorism policy as somehow too
'hard-line'. This is simply blaming the victim, the Australian community as a whole,
rather than the Islamist extremists actually causing most of the
problems and all of the terrorism.
One aspect of overcoming
personnel shortages in the ADF is fixing our unfair and clearly
inadequate treatment of the veterans of previous wars because this is a
growing disincentive to both recruitment and retention for the current
and future defence force.
Superannuation in the defence force is also
an important recruiting and retention measure. Continual controversy about the unfair and
discriminatory indexation method used for ADF superannuation schemes, and
the compensation payments paid to disabled war veterans, is easily fixed
by adopting the same method used to index parliamentary pensions.
War veterans will not achieve success in
their public campaigns to improve their treatment unless they stop
fighting among themselves, stop silly abuse of those trying to help them
and work together logically and reasonably to air and resolve the public policy issues involved
effectively.
Articles:
Australia's New Security Agreement with
Japan
by Professor Robyn Lim
Australia and East Timor: If You Cannot
Get a Strategy Get a Plan Young Man by
Grant Sanderson
The Proust Review: Yet More Tinkering by
Neil James
Control Orders: Sword or Shield? by Robert Cornall
What a Difference a Decade Makes:
Risking the Sustainment Capability of
the Air Force
by Air Commodore Garry Bates (Retd)
Struggling for Altitude: The JSF
Project by John Tirpak
Reviews:
Bean's Gallipoli: The Diaries of
Australia's Official War Correspondent
Edited and annotated by Dr Kevin Fewster
(reviewed by Dr Michael McKernan)
Gallipoli: The Pilgrimage Guide by
Garrie Hutchinson
(reviewed by Dr Karl James)
Alliance: The Inside Story of How
Roosevelt, Stalin & Churchill Won One War & Began Another
by
Jonathan Fenby
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
Command in Vietnam: Reflections of a
Commanding Officer by Colonel F. Peter Scott
(reviewed by Brigadier John Essex-Clark)
An Atlas of Australia's Wars (Second
Edition) by Lieutenant General John Coates
(reviewed by Neil James)
The Howard Paradox: Australian Diplomacy
in Asia 1996-2006 by Professor Michael Wesley
(a review essay by Graeme Dobell)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside
Bagdad's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
(reviewed by Neil James)
Obituaries:
Brigadier Denis Owen Anthony
Magee (Retd)
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Robert
Charlton, RFD (Retd)
George Douglas
Jacklin
Summer 2006/07
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
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Editorial
Strategic guidance that works: Many reforms in the ADF's force structure
and much of the equipment procurement over recent years were not forecast
in the 2000 Defence White Paper. While this partly due to the
requirements of post-9/11 (2001) military commitments, it has been also
caused by flaws in the processes by which previous defence white papers
were prepared. Future white papers should be whole-of-government efforts
and should fully involve defence force inputs.
Letters to the Editor
Commentary:
The
Appreciation on the Strategical
Position of Australia prepared by the Chiefs of Staff in February
1946 was an intellectually robust analysis which has stood the tests of
time and change well. The methodology of the formal strategic
appreciation should be reintroduced.
In an
election year in particular, the
paramount consideration for any discussion of when and how Australia
should withdraw its forces from Iraq should be the safety of the troops
deployed on the ground in that country.
Analogies between the Vietnam and Iraq Wars
are again being quoted by critics of the latter. Many of these analogies
are based on what the critics want to remember happened in the Vietnam
War rather than what actually occurred.
The carnage in Iraq is not a
civil war in
the accepted sense and describing it as such actually hampers the search
for a solution.
Members of the ADF
wounded in action
should not be disrespectfully described as injured.
The
Armed Forces Federation of Australia
(ArFFA) has ceased operations. This should not have been allowed to
occur and the Government and the ADF leadership will regret their
inaction in due course.
The
Regional Assistance Mission to the
Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is now struggling to assist in the much-needed
reform of Solomon Islands governance because the corrupt and incompetent
government led by Manasseh Sogavare is continually frustrating the
criminal investigations and reform actions needed.
Articles:
Facing Testing Times: Prospects and
Perspectives on International Security
by Professor Robert O'Neill
Attitude Problems Across the Ditch by
Zhivan Alach
What a To Do About David Hicks by
Neil James
Are the F-111s Really Stuffed? by Don
Middleton
Australian Tanks: Facts Not Mythology
by Dr David Kilcullen
Reviews:
Jacka VC: Australian Hero by
Robert Macklin
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
The Great War by Les Carlyon
(reviewed by Professor Jeffrey Grey)
Chased by the Sun: The Australians in
Bomber Command in World War II by Professor Hank Nelson
(reviewed by Squadron Leader Alex Post)
The Strength of a Nation by Dr
Michael McKernan
(reviewed by Commodore Jack McCaffrie (Retd))
Strategic Cousins: Australian and
Canadian Expeditionary Forces and the British and American Empires
by Dr John Blaxland
(reviewed by Neil James)
General Peter Cosgrove: My Story by
General Peter Cosgrove (Retd)
(reviewed by Michael O'Connor)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure
in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks
(reviewed by Patrick Gallagher)
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq
by George Packer
(reviewed by Neil James)
Inside the Global Jihad: How I
Infiltrated Al Qa'eda and was Abandoned by Western Intelligence
by
Omar Nasiri
(reviewed by Tony LeRay-Meyer)
Spring 2006
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Are we at war or not and why this matters: Many contemporary debates in Australia have
a common underlying theme differing basic assumptions by the
protagonists as to whether Australia is at war or not.
Commentary:
Whether
Australia's commitment to Iraq
should be continued or wound down is a very complex and nuanced subject.
This complexity is not reflected in much of the public debate.
For a range of strategic, diplomatic,
military and economic reasons solving the many problems posed by
North Korea is not possible
without the co-operation of China and South Korea.
Australia has little alternative but to grin
and bear it when accused of "neo-colonialism" by
crooked and/or
incompetent South Pacific leaders.
The
Victorian Court of Appeal's reasoning
behind its quashing of the terrorist conviction recorded against "Jihad
Jack" Thomas poses significant difficulties for Australian police
interviewing Australian terrorist suspects detained in foreign
countries.
Much of the public condemnation of the
control order imposed on Jack Thomas has missed the point.
Will the latest
review of management within
the Department of Defence be any more successful than all the many other
ones over the last 35 years?
Inappropriate
video clips posted on the
Internet by Australian soldiers returned from Iraq pale into
insignificance compared to the video clips posted by the Islamist
extremists fighting the forces of the new Iraqi government and its
coalition allies.
The report of the Board of Inquiry into the
death of Private Jake
Kovco
should include recommendations about the
disgraceful and hurtful reporting of some supposed "defence
correspondents", and about the poor standard of weapon handling in the
rifle company concerned.
The impending collapse of the
Armed Forces
Federation of Australia will be a sad day for the ADF.
Articles:
Australia's Security Agenda
by John Howard
Reflections and the Path Forward for
Defence by Brendan Nelson
Fighting for Talent on a Global Stage: A
Five-Point Strategy to Improve Recruitment and Retention
by Dr Nick Jans and Judy Frazer-Jans
Crisis Contingency Plans: The Lebanon
Experience by Ian Dudgeon
New Zealand and the 2006 East Timor
Crisis by Zhivan Alach
A State of Denial: A Sad Legacy for
Future Generations by Air Vice Marshal Peter Criss (Retd)
New Task Force Faces Biggest Killer
by Berthold Schwarz
Reviews:
Somme Mud: The War Experiences of an Australian Infantryman in France
1916-1919
by
E.F.P. Lynch (edited by Will Davies)
(reviewed by Dr Peter Stanley)
Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War by
Bruce Scates
(reviewed by Dr Karl James)
Pilgrimage: A Traveller's Guide to Australia's Battlefields
by Garrie Hutchinson
(reviewed by Dr Karl James)
Clive Caldwell, Air Ace by Kristen Alexander
(reviewed by Air Commodore Mark Lax)
Possums & Bird Dogs: Australian Army Aviation's 161 Reconnaissance
Flight in South Vietnam
by Peter Nolan
(reviewed by Major General Mike O 'Brien (Retd))
Essays on Australian Defence
by Professor Paul Dibb
(reviewed by Michael O'Connor)
Cosgrove: Portrait of a Leader by
Patrick Lindsay
(reviewed by Neil James)
House of War: The Pentagon and the
Disastrous Rise of American Power by James Carroll
(reviewed by Dr Tom Frame)
Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear
Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the
A.Q. Khan Network by Gordon Corera
(reviewed by Dr Ron Huisken)
The Partnership: The Inside Story of the
US-Australian Alliance Under Bush and Howard
by Greg Sheridan
(reviewed by Michael O'Connor)
Obituaries:
Dorothy Joan
Dowson, MBE, OAM
Captain W.F. (Bill)
Carpenter, USN (Retd)
Winter 2006
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
.bmp)
Editorial
Ignorance of the war is no excuse: Recent media reporting and commentary on defence issues,
ranging from the death of Private Jake Kovco to the ADF's current operations in
East Timor, has been most disappointing and often disgraceful. The
profession of arms will not overcome its distrust of the profession of
journalism while media coverage of defence issues is so often so
uninformed and unprofessional.
Commentary:
The debacle over the repatriation of the
body of Private Jake Kovco from the Middle East Area of Operations had
major and distressing results but is easily prevented in future.
Much media speculation on the death of Private Jake Kovco was so uninformed as to be pointless. It
was also unnecessarily distressing to his family and friends. There must
be more restraint by the media about intruding into the privacy of a
bereaved family's grief.
The Widows, families and friends of Sergeant
Andrew Russell and Warrant Officer David Nary were also unnecessary
victims of insensitive and at times insulting media coverage of the
Kovco death.
Public anger over the repatriation of
Australia's war dead has a long history.
Recent media coverage of the non-warlike
classification for the conditions of service for personnel deployed to
East Timor was greatly exaggerated. There would be very few diggers in East
Timor who thought they were in a real war, especially in comparison to
their mates in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The defence force is stretched but not yet
strained. We have ignored the rule-of-three in capability development
and force structuring for far too long and now it has come back to bite
us with a vengeance.
The strategic lessons from the last deployment to East
Timor remain valid and not all the many deficiencies have been fixed or
indeed fully acknowledged.
Criticism of the ADF's commanders on the
ground in East
Timor from the perspective of Australian armchairs is unwarranted. The
situation is complex and highly nuanced. We should let our
commanders command.
On current financial trends the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter could end up costing more than the F-22 Raptor and be
several more years behind schedule. The
financial and technical risks associated with the JSF program remain
very high. We need a serious debate about buying both aircraft types instead
of putting all our strategic eggs in the rickety JSF basket.
The reaction from both sides of politics to
the editorial in the Spring 2006 issue of Defender on the AWB
scandal shows the
independent and actively non-partisan approach of the ADA is
acknowledged by all major political parties.
Articles:
Defence Budget 2006/07: Planning on Hope
or Pessimism
by Dr Mark Thomson
Australia's Vulnerabilities by
Michael O'Connor
Japan: Strategic Isolation Redux by
Professor Robyn Lim
The International Context of Islamist
Terrorism by
Peter Varghese
Like a Jewelled Watch by
Bill Bridges
High Time for the High-Readiness Reserve by
Dr Hugh Smith
Reviews:
To Villers-Bretonneux: With
Brigadier-General William Glasgow, DSO, and the 13th Australian Infantry
Brigade by
Peter Edgar
(reviewed by Neil James)
Saving Australia: Curtin's Secret Peace
With Japan by
Bob Wurth
(reviewed by Dr Michael McKernan)
The Quiet Man: The Autobiography of Air
Chief Marshal Sir Neville McNamara
by Air Chief Marshal Sir Neville
McNamara
(reviewed by Air Commodore Brendan Roberts (Retd))
A Different Sort of War: Australians in Korea 1950-53
by Dr Richard Trembath
(reviewed by Professor Peter Edwards)
The Cambridge History of Warfare
edited
by Professor Geoffrey Parker
(reviewed by Professor Peter Dennis)
The Oxford History of Modern War
edited by Professor Charles Townsend
(reviewed by Professor Peter Dennis)
America's Coming War with China: A Collision Course Over Taiwan by
Ted Galen Carpenter
(reviewed by Dr Tom Frame)
Autumn 2006
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Sifting the moral chaff from the wheat: The continuing controversy over AWB
Limited's contravention of the UN sanctions on Iraq has missed an
important point. At the same time as this was occurring, including when
AWB was still a government instrumentality, the ADF was helping enforce
the sanctions. Heads should roll and this should never be allowed to
happen again. (Full editorial is available on above link).
Commentary:
The third anniversary of the US-led
collective intervention in Iraq saw a resurgence of opinionating that
the war is lost. The basic answer to the question
'is the war lost?' is
that it is far too early to tell.
Some
baby boomers are unfortunately forming
their understanding of Australia's current strategic situation through
the prism of their participation in anti-Vietnam war movements of the
late 1960s and early 1970s. This is a triumph of nostalgia over
intellectual effort and objectivity.
If Australia needs to maintain ground forces
in southern Iraq after their current tasks are completed in mid 2006
then the Government needs to explain the
strategic rationale for this
much better than it is doing so now.
Informed public debate on which
next-generation combat aircraft Australia should buy is being hamstrung
by the refusal of the Department of Defence and the RAAF to contribute
properly to the debate. Do they have something to hide?
The troops we have committed overseas are
generally well-equipped but this is largely because there are so few of
them. A major reason why there are so few of them is because
we do not have enough equipment (or troops) to deploy and sustain larger
numbers.
There are
too many conferences being run in
the defence and wider national security arena. Government departments
and agencies should stop giving commercial conference organisers a free
ride.
Calls for the return of
national service are
not justified in Australia's current strategic circumstances. There are
better and cheaper ways to overcome the defence force's recruiting and
retention shortfalls.
Articles:
A Certain Future: Demographic Constraints
on Our Defence
by Simon Smith
With the Gift of Hindsight: Recruiting
and Retaining the Young by Vice
Admiral Ian MacDougall (Retd)
Uranium Sales to India: What Should
Australia's Price Be? by
Dr Ron Huisken
The Seditious Activities of Wilfred
Burchett by
Brigadier Phil Greville (Retd)
Australian Citizenship: Worth Promoting,
Worth Defending by
the Hon Peter Costello
RAMSI and State Building in Solomon
Islands by
Dr Michael Fullilove
Reforming Papua New Guinea's Police by
Michael O'Connor
Reviews:
Vets at War:
A History of the Australian Army Veterinary Corps 19091946 by
Ian M. Parsonson
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
A Man of Intelligence: The Life of Captain Eric Neave Australian
Codebreaker Extraordinary
by
Dr Ian Pfennigwerth
(reviewed by Ron Bonighton)
Shaft of the Spear: Evolution of the RAAF Technical Services to the End
of the Second World War
by Group Captain Gregory Grantham and
Air Commodore Edward J. Bushell
(reviewed by Group Captain Bob Bartram (Retd))
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
by Captain Nathaniel Fick, USMC
(reviewed by Ian Kuring)
Love My Rifle More Than You:
Young and Female in the US Army
by Kayla Williams
(reviewed by Dr Kathryn Spurling)
Righteous Violence: The Ethics and Politics of Military Intervention
edited by Professor Tony Coady and Dr Michael O'Keefe
(reviewed by Dr Tom Frame)
Striking Back:
The 1972 Munich Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response by
Aaron J. Klein
(reviewed by Ted Lapkin)
Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins
by
Professor Peter Edwards
(reviewed by Neil James)
Summer 2005/06
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
.BMP)
Editorial
The dangers of uninformed public
discourse: The recent poor standard of public debate on
counter-terrorism measures repeated a familiar pattern for discussion of
national security issues. Why is public discourse on such matters in
Australia so often sub-optimal? This results from a mix of long-standing
and transient causes.
Commentary:
Treasury Secretary Dr Ken Henry's article in
the Spring 2005 Defender was based on some arguable assumptions
and optimistic predictions. It also ignored the fact that recent minor
increases in the defence budget were not just to handle current defence
operations, but are really necessary to begin cancelling out the chronic
under-investment in defence of the past three decades.
The Board of Inquiry into the
Sea King crash
on Nias in April indicates the root cause of the crash was inadequate
funding for a very long period. The Sea King fleet should have been
replaced by a modern helicopter type, as per the original life-of-type
schedule, well before the crash occurred.
Those arguing for repeal of the
updated
sedition laws on the grounds that such laws are archaic are missing the
point. The crime has continued to occur. The main reason for the lack of
prosecutions is because the law needed updating not because the crimes
involved were no longer committed.
Recent statements by former Prime Minister
Paul Keating that Gough Whitlam should have placed the
Governor-General
under 'house arrest' in 1975 show a fundamental misunderstanding of the
law and practice of executive authority.
The
recent poll of experts conducted by the
ABC television current affairs program, Lateline, on the new
counter-terrorism laws used a flawed methodology and unnecessarily
risked exacerbating community concerns and tensions.
Why not appoint one of the senior officer
victims of recent abuses of command authority to the ADF team tasked
with implementing reform of the military justice system?
Articles:
Rethinking the Future: Prediction and its
Perils
by Senator Russell Trood
Treasury's Traditional Attack on Defence
by Michael O'Connor
The Defence Budget Must be Boosted by
Professor Ross Babbage
Guns or Butter by
Dr Mark Thomson
Military Partnerships Not Political
Pandering by
Robert McClelland
Rethinking China by
Professor John Fitzgerald
Rethinking Rights in the Age of Terror by
Senator George Brandis
National Security Comes Before Party
Politics
by Michael Danby
Farewell to Our Last Dual Veteran of the
World Wars by Commodore Jim
Dickson, RAN (Retd)
Australia's Crude Oil Self-Sufficiency:
Does it Matter? by Eriks Velins
Reviews:
Gallipoli: An Australian Encyclopedia of
the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign by
Ron Austin
(reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Stevenson)
Game to the Last:
The 11th Australian Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli by
James Hurst
(reviewed by John Donovan)
A Doctor's War
by Rowley Richards
(reviewed by Professor Frank Bowden)
The Right Man for the Right Job:
Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Savige as a Military Commander
by Major Gavin Keating
(reviewed by Dr John Connor)
Against the Odds:
Escapes and Evasions by Allied Airmen, World War II
edited by Murray Adams
(reviewed by Air Commodore Mark Lax)
Only One River to Cross:
An Australian Soldier Behind Enemy Lines in Korea
by Dr A.M. Harris
(reviewed by Brigadier Jim Shelton, Retd)
Hassett - Australian Leader:
A Biography of General Sir Francis Hassett, AC, KBE, CB, DSO, LVO
by Brigadier John Essex-Clark, (Retd)
(reviewed by Brigadier Chris Appleton)
The Men Who Persevered:
The AATTV The Most Highly Decorated Australian Unit of the Viet Nam
War
by Bruce Davies and Gary Mackay
(reviewed by Ian Kuring)
Through Enemy Eyes by
Dave Sabben
(reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins, (Retd))
The Navy and the Nation:
The Influence of the Navy on Modern Australia edited by Dr David Stevens
and Dr John Reeve
(reviewed by Rear Admiral David Campbell, RAN (Retd))
Australian Airborne:
The History and Insignia of Australian Military Parachuting by
John O'Connor
(reviewed by Major David Armit)
International Terrorism:
New Zealand Perspectives edited by Associate Professor James Veitch
(reviewed by Cameron Crouch)
Best Australian Political Cartoons 2005
edited by Russ Radcliffe
(reviewed by Neil James)
Spring 2005
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Cover Page
Editorial
Old lessons being relearnt ... again: Australia recently commemorated the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War II in much more fluid strategic
circumstances than at any time since at least the 30th anniversary. The
marked run-down in defence capabilities over the last 30 years in
particular must be reversed. Further Lotus-land thinking risks us having
to relearn the bitter lessons of defeat and the price of eventual
victory and peace as we had to in 1939-45. Assuming of course we are not
prevented from so learning as a conquered or otherwise strategically
cowed people.
Commentary:
The
key lesson of the Latham experiment is
surely that no political party should again offer a candidate for
national leadership so intellectually unprepared for the international
dimensions of governing Australia.
Much of the
controversy over new
counter-terrorism measures reflects a poor knowledge of Australian
history and the constitutional principles involved. Calm and rational
public debate is needed not the knee-jerk claims of uninformed 'civil
liberties' lobbyists and the bogus and self-serving ranting of Islamist
extremists. Genuine discrimination concerns among Australia's mainstream
Muslims, and unfounded popular fears that all Muslims pose a terrorist
risk, are not allayed by the silly claims being aired.
The new
reforms to our counter-terrorism,
sedition and citizenship laws are justified, reasonable and
constitutional, and do not constitute an over-reaction by the
Commonwealth and State governments. Indeed, the swift agreement to the
measures by the nine disparate governments involved testifies to the
nature of the threat and to their confidence in the checks and balances
incorporated.
Sixty years after World War II
Japan's
continued refusal to face its past, as Germany has long done, still
affects strategic stability across the Asia-Pacific region. With the end
of the Cold War and the rise of China, Japan's real acceptance in modern
Asia will not advance until young Japanese are taught the truth about
the many atrocities committed by Japan in the 1931-45 period and the
atrocity of their continued denial.
There are sound moral, operational and
equity reasons
why Australia employs females so broadly in the defence
force. For the same balance of reasons such employment, by necessity, is
not total.
Articles:
Has Australia Gone Soft on Communist
China
by Professor Paul Dibb
Australia's Defence to 2045: The
Macro-economic Outlook by Dr Ken
Henry (Secretary to the Treasury)
The Limits of Multiculturalism by
Tony Parkinson
The Meaning of VJ-Day
by Rear Admiral Guy Griffiths, Peter Ryan,
Air Chief Marshal Sir Neville McNamara and Joan Dowson
Seapower and Joint-Force Synergy
by Rear Admiral Mark Bonser
Reviews:
The Somme by
Professor Robin Prior and Dr
Trevor Wilson
(reviewed by Dr Peter Stanley)
Visions of Victory:
The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders by
Professor Gerhard L. Weinberg
(reviewed by Michael O'Connor)
Strategic Command:
General Sir John Wilton and Australia's Asian Wars
by Professor David Horner
(reviewed by Professor Jeffrey Grey)
The Brotherhood of Airmen:
The Men and Women of the RAAF in Action, 1914Today
by Dr Trevor Wilson
(reviewed by Air Commodore Mark Lax)
The Amazing SAS:
The Inside Story of Australia's Special Forces
by Ian McPhedran
(reviewed by Stuart Ellis)
Plunging Point: Intelligence Failures,
Cover-ups and Consequences
by Lance Collins and Warren Reed
(reviewed by Neil James)
Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of
Suicide Terrorism by Dr Robert
Pape
(reviewed by Tony LeRay-Meyer)
The Interrogators:
Task Force 500 and America's Secret War Against Al Qa'eda
by Chris Mackey and Greg Miller
(reviewed by Neil James)
Thunder From the Silent Zone:
Rethinking China by Dr Paul Monk
(reviewed by Dr Brian Ridge)
Australian and US Military Co-operation:
Fighting Common Enemies by Dr Christopher Hubbard
(reviewed by Dr Hugh Smith)
Winter 2005
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Cover Page
Editorial
Recruiting, retention, remuneration and
recovery: The 2004 exit survey of those
leaving the ADF and the opinion surveys of those remaining reflect the
defence force's inter-related problems of recruiting shortfalls,
retention strains, hollow units, operational stretch and block
obsolescence.
Commentary:
In June 2005 the Australia Defence
Association celebrated its 30th anniversary. Australia is quite a
different country from that of 1975 but the need for the ADA as an
independent, non-partisan public interest guardian organisation remains
relatively unchanged.
The 2005/06 defence budget, despite the hype
about (largely unavoidable) current spending, still allocates insufficient funds to capital
investment and the rebuilding of the defence force for the future.
Recent political debate about which
historical figures in Australian politics were appeasers in the 1930s
has largely missed the point that there were many appeasers on both
sides and that, more to the point, both sides of politics contributed to
Australia having to fight World War II grossly unprepared.
No individual Australian can be lauded as the man who
saved Australia by deciding the three surviving infantry divisions of the 2nd AIF needed to
be brought home from the Middle East in early 1942. However, too many
have not paid due attention to the important role of the then Chief of
the General Staff, Lieutenant General Sir Vernon Sturdee, in providing
professional and moral backbone to a largely panicking government.
Recent rivalry between Victoria and South
Australia over the contract to build new destroyers has obscured the
real strategic issues involved, especially the need to avoid
over-concentration of defence industry in any one part or polity of the
country.
It is hypocritical, to say the least, that some of the biggest
and most biased critics of the decision to re-equip the ADF with
destroyers are the very people responsible for the existing serious capability
gap in this regard.
Australia may have to sign the ASEAN Treaty
of Amity and Co-operation even though it should not have to. The irony
of Malaysia demanding we sign while Vietnam declaring it is unimportant
should not be lost on any Australian who knows their history.
Recent political squabbling over who may
or may not officiate at the commissioning of flagpoles in schools once again
ignores but underlines the real point that there continues to be too much
politicisation of national events, ceremonies and symbols that need to
be above politics.
Articles:
Easier Said Than Done: At the Six-year Mark in Remaking the ADF
by Dr Mark Thomson
How to Avoid Backing into the Future
by General Peter Cosgrove (on his
retirement as CDF)
The Clock is Ticking on Papua New Guinea by
Susan Windybank
Torture: An Unwarranted Case
by Neil James
Keeping Our Balance in Troubled Times: Legal Measures, Freedoms and
Terrorist Challenges
by Robert Cornall (Secretary of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's
Department)
Affordability and the New Air Combat Capability by Peter Goon
Snapshots from Al Muthanna Province
by Matt Brown (ABC Middle East
Correspondent)
Reviews:
The Silent 7th: An Illustrated History of the 7th Australian Division
by Dr
Mark Johnston
(reviewed by Neil James)
Tobruk 1941 by
Peter Cochrane
(reviewed by Bill Deane)
Hellfire: The Story of Australia, Japan
and the Prisoners of War
by Cameron Forbes
(reviewed by Dr Peter Stanley)
Paul Cullen, Citizen and Soldier: The Life and Times of Major General
Paul Cullen AC, CBE, DSO*, ED by Kevin Baker
(reviewed by Neil James)
War: The Lethal Custom (Second Edition)
by Dr Gwynne Dyer
(reviewed by Brigadier Justin Kelly)
The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu
Ghraib
edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel
(reviewed by Dr Paul Monk)
The Long, Slow Death of White Australia by Dr Gwenda Tavan
(reviewed by Max Tapping)
Remapping East Asia: The Construction of a Region edited by T.J.
Pempel
(reviewed by Professor Robyn Lim)
Autumn 2005
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
We need a real defence debate:
The latest limited military commitment to
Iraq shows, if nothing else, the significant inadequacies in our defence
preparedness and the need for a real defence debate
Commentary:
The
tsunami which devastated Aceh has been a
catalyst for further strengthening the problematic strategic
relationship between Australia and Indonesia
Our renewed military effort in
Iraq was as inevitable
as it was resisted
Most analogies put forward between the wars
in
Vietnam and Iraq demonstrate a substantial lack of knowledge of either war
The Senate Estimates session on the "Barton
Affair" wasted too much time on peripheral issues
The
4-Corners program featuring Rod
Barton's allegations was tendentious and obscured the real lessons
stemming from the incompetent way Barton was deployed to Iraq
The light sentence pronounced on
Abu Bakar Bashir is unfair but explicable. Australia needs to be careful lest our
indignation allows Islamist bigots like Bashir to portray themselves as victims
of foreign meddling in Indonesia and in the practice of Islam
Articles:
Whole-of-Government Reform: A Practical First Step
by Neil James
Rising China:
The Risk of Miscalculation
by Professor Robyn Lim
Dangers Every Bit As Great: Remodelling the Paradigms of Australian
Strategic Policy Debate
by Dr Paul Monk
Danger on Our Doorstep: Organised Crime
Takes Hold in Papua New Guinea by Mark Forbes
Matching Performance to Promise:
Rebuilding the Army Reserve
by Major General Warren Glenny (Retd)
Going Down to the Sea in Big Enough Ships by Billy Ruffian
ADF Tactical Airlift Options by Ian
Bostock
Reviews:
Ancient Warfare:
A Very Short Introduction by Professor Harry
Sidebottom
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
Quinn's Post, Anzac, Gallipoli
by
Dr Peter Stanley
(reviewed by Major General Mike O'Brien (Retd))
The Royal Australian Navy in World War II (Second Edition)
by Dr David Stephens (Editor)
(reviewed by Rear Admiral David Campbell, RAN (Retd))
Facing Asia: A History of the Colombo Plan by Dr Daniel Oakman
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
Asian Alternatives: Australia's Vietnam Decision and Lessons on Going to
War
by Garry Woodard (reviewed by Professor Peter Edwards)
The Cruel Legacy:
The HMAS Voyager Tragedy by Dr Tom Frame
(reviewed by Dr Ian Pfennigwerth)
In the Shadow of Swords:
On the Trail of Terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia
by Sally Neighbour (reviewed by Tony LeRay-Meyer)
Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton (Second Edition) by
Professor Martin van Creveld
(reviewed by Brigadier George Yacoub (Retd))
Summer 2004/05
The complete issue may be downloaded
here.
Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be
downloaded below. The Major Furphy column may be downloaded separately
from the Major Furphy page.
Editorial
Compacting defence:
Proposals to amend the Federal Compact on
health and education responsibilities between the Commonwealth and the
States must take account of the additional risk that
defence resourcing will be cut even further
Commentary:
All parties failed to address
real defence issues adequately in the 2004 federal election campaign
Continued unexplained delay with
Project Overlander (re-equipment of the Army's light, medium and heavy general
service vehicles and trailers)
What the
Defence Materiel Organisation
appears to be costing the taxpayer in overheads
Why the
Auditor-General again qualified the
accounts of the Department of Defence
Continued delays in the Government
appointing a new director at the Canberra-based and quasi-independent
Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) risks lack of direction
Articles:
Understanding the Challenge of Islamist Terrorism in Order to Counter It
by Dennis Richardson (Director-General ASIO)
Can We Avoid War With Islam by
Professor Paul Dibb and Geoffrey Barker
Endemic Instability of the South Pacific by Professor Helen Hughes
Rebuilding the Australian Merchant Navy by Vice Admiral David Leach, Dr David Leece,
Peter Dent and Douglas McDonald
The ASLAV in Iraq by
Captain Tim Hales
The Taking of Fallujah: Early Insights and Observations by Ian Bostock
Reviews:
Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You: The Fatal Charge of the Light Horse,
Gallipoli, August 7th, 1915
by John Hamilton
(reviewed by Dr Michael McKernan)
Kokoda by
Paul Ham
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
Kokoda Commander: A Life of Major General
'Tubby' Allen by Stuart Braga
(reviewed by Dr
Malcolm Kennedy)
On Shaggy Ridge: The Australian Seventh
Division in the Ramu Valley From Kaiapit to the Finisterres
by Phillip Bradley
(reviewed by Dr Malcolm Kennedy)
Chester Wilmot Reports by
Neil McDonald
(reviewed by Matt Brown)
Other People's Wars: A History of
Australian Peacekeeping
by Dr
Peter Londey
(reviewed by Neil James)
Reluctant Saviour: Australia, Indonesia and the Independence of East
Timor
by Clinton Fernandes (reviewed by Dr Brian Ridge)
Indonesia's Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the Soul of Islam by Dr Greg
Barton
(reviewed by
Tony LeRay-Meyer)
The Geopolitics of East Asia: The Search for Equilibrium by Professor Robyn Lim
(reviewed by Neil James)
Australian Defence Almanac 2004-2005
by Raspal Khosa and Dr Mark Thomson
(reviewed by Neil James) |
