Read quickly, one could walk away satisfied with how the Government has dealt with Army’s role and force structure in the recently released Defence White Paper. There are some new and frankly exciting additions to …
Articles by: "Michael Clifford"
Albert Palazzo’s paper Forging Australian Land Power: A Primer and his response to John Blaxland’s critique are of real value in our current hypoxic policy world. Perhaps unintentionally, their contributions highlight three re-occurring themes in …
I read with great interest a recent article by Paul Dibb titled ‘How to plan for [an] ADF without [a] territorial threat’. I am of the 1986 Dibb Report and subsequent Beazley White Paper generation. …
It’s been a little over a year since the ISIS chapter of Australia’s long war in the Middle East commenced. As I’ve said on a number of occasions over the last year, starting here and …
While Albert Palazzo’s response to ASPI’s Beyond 2017: The Australian Defence Force and Amphibious Warfare adds another dimension to the amphibious debate in Australia, it highlights another quite interesting characteristic within Defence. Language creates a …
Two recent articles on Defence acquisition one here by my colleague Mark Thomson and another in the AFR here by John Kerin quoting Warren King caused me to reflect on the long journey Defence has …
ASPI’s 2015 Land Conference this week foreshadows a number of Government policy announcements that will directly or indirectly impact the Australian Army and its future operational tempo and force structure. The Conference will be an …
Last week US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a French interview that the American-led coalition had recorded more than 10,000 deaths of ISIS combatants since fighting against the group commenced last year. …
The Army has shouldered the bulk of the Australian Defence Force’s operational workload and casualties over the last decade or so. While there has been a range of equipment acquisitions which has left Army far …
Let’s not speak of them when accountability or lack of it is everywhere else, but where the Westminster system suggests it should be! The First Principles Review (FPR) is another review which heralds ‘transformational change’ …
In a recent blog post Mitchell Yates made a useful contribution to the land forces debate in Australia. But—again—when we attempt to define what the Australian Army’s role may or may not be we fall …
In a recent blog post my colleague Karl Claxton took the opportunity to frame the issues around the Defence Minister Kevin Andrew’s recent Land 400 announcement. Sadly, Karl echoes an old complaint: Most commentators have …