{"id":28081,"date":"2016-08-08T08:26:19","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T22:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=28081"},"modified":"2016-08-08T12:56:50","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T02:56:50","slug":"oz-strategists-robert-oneill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/oz-strategists-robert-oneill\/","title":{"rendered":"Oz strategists: Robert O\u2019Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-28082 size-full\" title=\"Image courtesy of Flickr user B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/6999525968_3e3691d396_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/6999525968_3e3691d396_z.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/6999525968_3e3691d396_z-205x130.jpg 205w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/>Some big strategic brains fit the proof about why journalists shouldn\u2019t run things\u2014merely watch five of \u2018em decide where to lunch.<\/p>\n<p>Robert O\u2019Neill shatters that proof. Here\u2019s a big strategic brain that can think and do, teach and admin, persuade and push.<\/p>\n<p>This is a strategist who can chair and chide and charm and chivvy, and always move the game along. As Sir Michael Howard writes of O&#8217;Neill: \u2018He is a chairman made in heaven.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In an appreciation a decade ago, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/10357710500494283?journalCode=caji20\" target=\"_blank\">Des Ball<\/a> listed these O\u2019Neill characteristics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Internationally recognised for his scholarship\u2019;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extraordinary project management and fund-raising ability;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedication to institution building;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Steadfast commitment to the strategic studies profession;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And \u2018ultimately to be comfortable in the corridors of power to which he enjoyed access in many places around the world.\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These were the qualities that saw O&#8217;Neill head the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in Canberra; then become Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from 1982\u20131987, Chairman of the Council of IISS from 1986\u2013 2001, and the Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College at Oxford University from 1987 until his \u2018retirement\u2019 in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>Come the 21st century, O\u2019Neill headed back to Oz to play a big role in the sudden blossoming of Australian think tanks: the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neill\u2019s 2006 prescription for think tanks offers his recipe: \u2018good ideas, dialogue with government and a relationship which tolerates free expression of views, especially on differences with existing policies\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The ANU has just published a book-length appreciation of the O\u2019Neill career (free download) entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/press.anu.edu.au\/publications\/war-strategy-and-history\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018War, Strategy and History\u2019<\/a>. It stretches across the evolution of strategic studies as a discipline, the role and influence of think-tanks, counter-insurgency, the utility of military responses to atrocity crimes and peacekeeping.<\/p>\n<p>Launching the collection of essays, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gevans.org\/speeches\/Celebrating%20Bob%20O'Neill.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Gareth Evans<\/a>\u00a0(PDF) lauded an extraordinary career spanning \u2018real-world bloodsports to academic ones\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Not least of the O\u2019Neill understanding of the bloody real world was his service as an Army intelligence captain in Vietnam. He analysed that experience\u2014drawing on the long letters he wrote home to his wife, Sally\u2014in the book \u2018Vietnam Task: The 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, 1966\u201367\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Vietnam came after a Rhodes Scholar stint at Oxford which produced a book on \u2018The German Army and the Nazi Party, 1933\u20131939.\u2019 \u2018Being a German-speaking Australian\u2014not British\u2014army officer helped a great deal,\u2019 O\u2019Neill recalled of his ability to interview old German commanders.<\/p>\n<p>Returning from Vietnam, O&#8217;Neill produced an analysis of the conflict \u2018The Indo China Tragedy\u2019, followed by a biography of the general whose troops he\u2019d been fighting,\u00a0\u2018General Giap: Politician and Strategist.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There you have a summary of the man\u2019s range as a writer\u2014the German Army and the Nazis, a Captain\u2019s war in Vietnam, and then peering across the lines at the nature and strengths of the enemy commander.<\/p>\n<p>In 1970, he was appointed to write an official history of Australia\u2019s involvement in the Korean War. The following year, he became head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the position he held until 1982.<\/p>\n<p>During those 12 years he dedicated much of his research and writing time to Korean War history. The scope of his research and thinking meant the projected single volume had to be divided into two\u2014one on strategy and diplomacy, and the other on combat operations.<\/p>\n<p>During those dozen years, O\u2019Neill used to cram two jobs into one day: mornings at the War Memorial on the history, afternoons at the ANU running-building-saving-funding the SDSC.<\/p>\n<p>As the ABC\/Radio Australia foreign affairs\/defence correspondent, I was often in need of an interview with one of Australia\u2019s foremost academic strategists. I would ring SDSC in the morning and check for the least crowded moment in Bob\u2019s afternoon schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Turning up on spec in the afternoon, I never failed to score.<\/p>\n<p>After a\u00a0 couple of minutes chat on the topic, I\u2019d turn on my Nagra reel-to-reel recorder for five minutes of O\u2019Neill Q&amp;A gold; invariably well-informed and interesting, often with a new thought or different perspective. No editing required (unless I\u2019d stuffed up and had to repeat a question!).<\/p>\n<p>In the 1980s when he was at the IISS and I was in the ABC\u2019s London bureau, the cab ride to the Institute in Tavistock Street mined the same rich theme. In those strange days\u2014Ronald Reagan and the coming of Gorbachev\u2014the sane, informed understandings offered by Bob O\u2019Neill were the balm that worked like a charm.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neill has a rare ability to shift between the world of the writer\/thinker and the doing universe of the boss-bureaucrat-leader.<\/p>\n<p>Reach for a big strategic analogy. Napoleon claimed his mind was a series of boxes that he could open and close at will\u2014giving each topic full attention before closing the lid and turning to the next problem.<\/p>\n<p>Bob O\u2019Neill is also excellent at juggling many boxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some big strategic brains fit the proof about why journalists shouldn\u2019t run things\u2014merely watch five of \u2018em decide where to lunch. Robert O\u2019Neill shatters that proof. Here\u2019s a big strategic brain that can think and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":28082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[143,66,1752],"class_list":["post-28081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asia-pacific","tag-history","tag-oz-strategists"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Oz strategists: Robert O\u2019Neill | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/oz-strategists-robert-oneill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oz strategists: Robert O\u2019Neill | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some big strategic brains fit the proof about why journalists shouldn\u2019t run things\u2014merely watch five of \u2018em decide where to lunch. 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