Commentary

Opinion: Simply no place for unfounded alarmism

Opinion: Simply no place for unfounded alarmism

AUSTRALIA is not now at war at home or abroad.  Greens senator Lydia Thorpe insists Australia has been at war for 200 years, but she talks big and waves a small stick.  Community division as Thorpe imagines is alien to the overwhelming majority of...

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Opinion: Simply no place for unfounded alarmism

Opinion: Responsibility for failure rests at the top

The obscene business which is war has many rules. Command responsibility, also now called the Yamashita Principle, is that obligation of all commanders to ensure their troops fight within those rules.  Failure to do so is considered an omission mode of individual...

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Opinion: Missile strike a stark strategic reminder

Opinion: Missile strike a stark strategic reminder

RUSSIA’S Kerch bridge linking it with what most regard as unlawfully occupied Crimea was allegorical of the strengths and weaknesses of Australia’s strategic defences. The air-sea gap providing physical separation for continental Australia from southeast Asia and the...

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Commentary: Assessing the future of land combat capability

Commentary: Assessing the future of land combat capability

Should Defence press ahead with its investments in next-generation land combat capability or is it time to reallocate resources elsewhere to reflect changes in modern warfighting? Last month, the Albanese government  launched the Defence Strategic Review, touted...

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Commentary: Defence ducks probe into war crimes accountability

Commentary: Defence ducks probe into war crimes accountability

Source: BEN PACKHAM The Australian Newspaper's Foreign Affairs & Defence Correspondent - September 13, 2022 Defence has avoided an inquiry into the accountability of senior commanders for war crimes ­despite the findings of an independent panel, which said it...

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Commentary: Paul Dibb: Beware these pitfalls in review of defence

Commentary: Paul Dibb: Beware these pitfalls in review of defence

Professor Paul Dibb wrote the 1986 Review of Australia’s Defence Capabilities and was the primary author of the 1987 Defence White Paper Defending Australia. When announcing his Defence Strategic Review on August 3, Richard Marles stressed that the strategic changes...

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