Policy is a statement of intent or ambition. It is only effective to the extent that it penetrates the practices and mindset of the bureaucracy responsible for implementing it. Bureaucracies in general and defence bureaucracies …
Articles by: "Bob Moyse"
The Strategist has been defence-review-heavy recently. Much of the conversation has centred on conventional land forces and armour in particular. This has been couched in terms of generic land combat rather than in the context …
In his latest ASPI Strategic Insight paper, Michael Shoebridge identifies the key challenges Australia’s defence strategic review faces. The terms of reference for the review say that its purpose is ‘to consider the priority of …
In terms of scale, the recently announced Pacific support vessel, ADV Reliant, is chicken feed compared to the Royal Australian Navy’s submarine and frigate projects, but these capability decisions have more in common than is …
The electioneering in Australia over the security agreement between China and Solomon Islands has obscured important questions about why the deal came about and its future implications. At the core of China’s grey-zone tactics is …
In the past few months there have been several Strategist posts on a Plan B for Australia’s national security, the most useful of which have asked questions related to grand strategy. Here I explore how …
Followers of The Strategist may have seen the recent dialogue on the Defence Department’s Project LAND 400 between Marcus Hellyer and Jim Molan. Few subjects generate more emotion inside Defence than force structures, especially when …
Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith’s recent ASPI paper, Australia’s management of strategic risk in the new era, is an important strategic piece, which isn’t surprising given its authors. Australia often produces incisive and well-argued strategic-level …
A UK blog, the Thin Pinstriped Line, has produced a piece about the Royal Marines titled ‘The Corps huh, What is it good for?’ Given Australia’s considerable investment in amphibious capability, a discussion about the …
As a long-time amphibious capability advocate I welcome Andrew and Geoff’s piece but I think that it’s useful to distinguish between amphibious tactical operations, amphibious logistic support to land operations, and sea lift which requires …