Tag Archive for: "history"
Two cheers for Forward Defence

Was Australian strategy in the third quarter of the twentieth century, generally known as forward defence, a strategic disaster? After the fall of Saigon in 1975 the concept of ‘forward defence’ was widely discredited, along …

Protecting trade through deterrence

David McDonough gave a stout defence of the Air Warfare Destroyer on this blog. In several respects it’s a superior platform to our existing fleet and some proposed alternatives—namely, the smaller, cheaper ships suggested by …

A centenary and the future of war

Across much of the globe, the First World War—‘the war to end all wars’—still exercises a fierce hold on popular imagination. And many aspects of the war remain a subject of debate, more so than …

Mateship, sacrifice, a fair go and all that

Hands up if you agree that Anzac encapsulates ‘the unique qualities that gave birth to our national identity: courage, mateship, sacrifice, generosity, freedom and a fair go for all’. I can see almost all hands …