Study Paper Series
Study papers present an in-depth examination of single issues. They are lengthy and, by their nature, are intended to be as comprehensive and definitive as possible.
Counterinsurgency in Uruzgan 2009Success in counterinsurgency requires a careful balance between the ability to win the support of the people, and a finely honed close combat ability that can crush the enemy with precision whenever and wherever the opportunity arises. This paper examines these issues from a commander's perspective with a focus on counterinsurgency operations in Uruzgan in the second half of 2009. In doing so i...
Design and Planning of Campaigns and Operations in the Twenty-First CenturyThe premise of this study paper is that operational art and strategy are dynamic and contingent practices. Talent, refined by dedicated study of war and warfare, are the critical prerequisites for capable operational artists and strategists. General principles, rules derived from them, and systems based on these rules have only limited value for strategy and operational art. In fact, they may e...
The Lost Operational Art: Invigorating Campaigning into the Australian Defence ForceADF Operational art is conceptually weak and has been characterised by an intellectually restrictive framework. Specifically, there is no widespread understanding of operational art relevant to Australia's contemporary geostrategic and geopolitical context. The consequence is that there is virtually no culture of campaigning in the ADF that is based on sound doctrine relevant to the demands on...
Network Centric Warfare, Command, and the Nature of WarIn this paper, the author examines the claim that information technologies will allow for wider and more rapid sharing of information. In order to take advantage of the emerging possibilities presented by information technologies, NCW theorists recommend changes to the structure of information age military organisations and changes to the methods for command and control of military forces. Some...
Projecting Force: The Australian Army and Maritime StrategyWith the release of Force 2030, the 2009 Defence White Paper, the Australian Government has clearly set the ADF onto the path of a maritime strategy. With this development, Australia has joined many great states—from the Athenians to the Americans—who have pursued maritime strategies to their benefit.
The Ghost In The Machine: Better Application Of Human Factors To Enhance The Military Appreciation ProcessThe topic of this paper is the Military Appreciation Process (MAP), which is the structured procedure employed by the Australian Army for operational planning. The paper argues that, while the MAP is generally very effective, it could be further improved by better application of human factors. Specifically, better use of the personal role of the commander, intuition, and creativity will result...
From Moltke To Bin Laden: The Relevance Of Doctrine In The Contemporary Military EnvironmentFor contemporary, Western military organisations doctrine serves as the basis of their members' intellectual unity and underpins their ability to identify and incorporate change. Doctrine is held in such high regard by military professionals that one senior officer termed it 'the heart of the army.'
The World Looking Over Their Shoulders: Australian Strategic Corporals On Operations In Somalia And East TimorThe world looks over the shoulders of corporals and holds them accountable for every time they and their soldiers pull the trigger, as well as for their behaviour towards those they encounter. Their tactical decisions and personal conduct may have significance that reaches far beyond their individual actions.
A Tale Of Three Battalions: Combat Morale And Battle Fatigue In The 7th Australian Infantry Brigade, Bougainville, 1944-45The Anzac tradition does not talk much about what happens when combat morale falters and battle fatigue undermines military effectiveness. Yet, despite the Australian Army's proud history, it has not been immune from such problems. Evidence of this is not, however, likely to be found in any official history or unit report. Fortunately, the 7th Australian Infantry Brigade's campaign on Bougainvi...
The Making And Breaking Of The Post-Federation Australian Army, 1901-09The Australian Army did not begin with the First AIF. On the contrary, the original force lived and died from March 1901 to December 1909. As responsibility for defence transferred from colonial to federal authorities, many problems of structure, administration and training came to the fore. The task of forging these disparate structures into a national military organisation confronted a Federa...
A Complex and Changing Dynamic: Afghan Responses to Foreign Intervention 1878-2006Perceptions of Afghanistan have been dominated by stereotypes. The country has been seen as a mountainous, untouched, inhospitable land, populated by an independent and ferocious people who had a well deserved reputation for stubborn resistance to invaders. This stereotype seemingly unravelled when the US-led Coalition swept across the country in late 2001, defeated the Taliban, and replaced it...
Chief of Army’s Exercise Proceedings 2006In a world of complex war and unconventional threats 'amongst the people', of demographic and budgetary constraints and rapidly evolving technology, how does the Army situate itself to fulfil its obligations to the Australian Government? In recent times, the Army has simultaneously conducted high-intensity warfighting, peacekeeping deployments and counterinsurgency operations - and the foreseea...
Asymmetry and Complexity - Selected Papers from the 2005 Rowell Seminar and the 2005 Chief of Army's ConferenceSince the spectacular terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001, military professionals, scholars and policy makers have engaged in a spirited debate as to whether we witnessed an epochal shift in the nature of warfare. Notwithstanding the enormity and depravity of the 9/11 attacks, they did not herald an unprecedented new age of warfare. We are indebted to Clausewitz for...
Mechanising An Army: Mechanisation Policy And The Conversion Of The Light Horse, 1920-1943As the Hardened and Networked Army comes into being at the start of the 21st century, it is useful to reflect on previous periods of great change in the Australian Army's proud history. Once such period is ‘mechanisation', where the horse power that moved troops, artillery, logistics and engineering support gave way to tanks, armoured cars, trucks and motorcycles, all in the space of two decade...
The Tyranny Of Dissonance: Australia's Strategic Culture And Way Of War 1901-2005This monograph examines Australia's strategic culture and way of war over the course of a century. It seeks to analyse the relationship between ideas and practice and between geography and history in the evolution of Australian strategic behaviour. The study argues that, since Federation in 1901, there has been, and continues to be, a ‘tyranny of dissonance' between Australian strategic theory...
The Continental School Of Strategy: The Past, Present And Future Of Land PowerThis monograph analyses modern land power through examining the continental school of strategy that emerged in early 19th-century Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The continental school of strategy is important because it has provided the essential knowledge for the theory and practice of land power over the past two centuries. Many of the continental school's principles continue to re...
Primary Responsibilities And Primary Risks: Australian Defence Force Participation in the International Force East TimorThe deployment of an International Force to East Timor on 20 September 1999 under the command of Major General Peter Cosgrove marked an important step in international peace enforcement in the Asia-pacific. For the first time Australia provided lead-nation command to a significant multinational force comprising twenty-two contributing countries - including many regional powers.
Developing Australia's Maritime Concept Of Strategy: Lessons from the Ambon Disaster of 1942This paper uses a historical case study of the Ambon disaster of 1942 to try to determine lessons for the development of Australia's maritime concept of strategy in the early 21st century. The paper examines how, in 1941–42, Australia embarked on the strategy of a forward observation-line, using troops to secure bases for air forces in the northern archipelagos. The failure of this strategy is...
From Desert Storm to East Timor: Australia, the Asia-Pacific and ‘New Age’ Coalition OperationsIn late 1999 Australia assumed leadership of a significant regional military coalition operation in East Timor with the support of the international community. In the aftermath of the Cold War, ‘one– off' coalition operations to enforce peace and restore stability are the most common cause of overseas deployments by any military force. Whether for low-level military support operations or warfig...
Forward From The Past: The Development Of Australian Army Doctrine, 1972-PresentThis paper examines the development of Australian Army doctrine from the end of the Vietnam War in 1972 to the publication of Land Warfare Doctrine 1, The Fundamentals of Land Warfare in March 1999. It analyses the rise of Army doctrine for continental defence operations in the 1970s and dissects the trend towards low-level conflict in the 1980s. The paper looks closely at the logic be...
