{"id":35360,"date":"2017-11-08T14:30:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T03:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=35360"},"modified":"2017-11-08T15:13:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T04:13:53","slug":"vale-mike-clifford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/vale-mike-clifford\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale, Mike Clifford"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Mike Clifford\u2019s passing last week was horribly premature for a man with so much enthusiasm to do good things and with a love of bringing people together to learn and solve common problems. Losing his optimism and creativity is a blow. It was my pleasure to know and work with Mike for the better part of 20 years, first in Defence, then while he was being creative in defence industry and lastly while he was a senior fellow at ASPI.<\/p>\n

Through all those experiences I recall a person who was an optimist and almost always cheerful\u2014an unbelievably useful quality in big bureaucracies. For a big, bluff army general, Mike was also remarkably kind to people.\u00a0 Who would think that could be such an effective management strategy in Defence! All up, Mike had a pretty unbeatable collection of personal qualities.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t take my word for it. If you want to know what Mike Clifford was like, there is no better way to do that than by reading what he wrote for ASPI\u2019s Strategist<\/em>. Take this characteristically direct and to-the-point assessment of the role of defence ministers<\/a> and the challenges of reform:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s 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 \u2018transformational change\u2019 and points the finger at the Australian Defence Organisation as the primary culprit of the current malaise \u2026 But let\u2019s try and get the back story clear before we start making judgements about the most recent in a long line of defence reviews.<\/p>\n

Firstly governments and ministers are not blameless. Significant defence reform is almost always initiated by governments and implementation plans then approved by the Minister or Cabinet or both. The growth in top-line staff numbers, much trumpeted in the media as proof of uncontrolled inefficiencies, has in all cases been agreed by Government to meet operational needs or been a response to recommendations from Government-initiated reviews. Nevertheless Defence, like all large organisations, needs a good pruning from time to time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spot on, Mike! This is what\u2019s known as telling the truth, a quality not always present when organisational reform plans raise their bovine heads.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s Mike on a passionately held view<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Let me state up front: the heavy\/light and high-intensity\/low-intensity debate is complete rot! Disconnected from strategic guidance? Again rot! I for one am more concerned with saving lives and giving the government of the day the best options available when it looks to use and deploy ground forces. Have we all been asleep over the last decade as Australian lives have been saved by armour?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, tell us what you really think, Mike!<\/p>\n

Here is a classic Clifford statement on anti-ISIS military operations in the Middle East<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Any uncertainty around the rationale for Australia\u2019s commitment is a concern and demands clarification\u2014particularly as the government made clear when the ADF deployed to the Middle East in response to ISIS that it was doing so within a US-led strategy. However \u2026 the fight against Islamic State is still a campaign without a strategy. The concern is if we\u2019re waiting for the US administration to point the way, it\u2019ll be a long wait.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mike\u2019s writing on the Middle East shows him to be a person committed to avoiding conflict and the damage it does to all who are touched by it. He wanted political solutions and stressed that fighting which didn\u2019t lead to a strategy for peace was pointless.<\/p>\n

Finally, here\u2019s Mike exploring the challenges of building an amphibious capability<\/a> in the ADF:<\/p>\n

In any Defence endeavour, lessons need to be learned. But the learning process needs to be based on the real events rather than a growing folklore or revisionist capability aspirations. Nevertheless there\u2019s no argument that the capability potential offered by HMAS Canberra<\/em> and NUSHIP Adelaide<\/em> is significant. The challenge for policymakers is to understand how to get the most from the ships\u2014in particular, how they might use the new capability to further Australia\u2019s national interests. This is certainly not limiting tasks to the left of the conflict spectrum\u2014that was never the intent. But if it involves expanding the capability to be a \u2018full spectrum\u2019 amphibious assault capability, so be it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s good about this paragraph is that Mike avoids what might be called the \u2018Strategist\u2019s Curse\u2019\u2014which is the urge to always and instantly have the right answer.<\/p>\n

Much of Mike\u2019s written work for ASPI was a call for people to think more clearly, to think harder, to think laterally\u2014dammit<\/em>, just to think. This Mike did in spades and his instinct was to bring people from different professions and walks of life to collectively build better ideas. At ASPI Mike was busy and happiest when he was making connections work between people and organisations. This was a personally self-effacing but powerful way of doing business. I wish he was here to do more of it. Mike mentored, led and befriended people, in the best of all possible ways, to be better in their own lives. What a fine legacy and what a fine man!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike Clifford\u2019s passing last week was horribly premature for a man with so much enthusiasm to do good things and with a love of bringing people together to learn and solve common problems. 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