The complete issue may be downloaded here. Individual pdf versions of key commentary, articles and reviews may be downloaded below.
Leading article
Defence is a trust not a cash cow: Since Kevin Rudd assumed the federal leadership of the Labor Party at the end of 2006 we have seen a pronounced move to fresh thinking on defence issues within Labor circles. Coincidentally, or probably not, there has also been increased bipartisan agreement on strategic policy and defence capability development generally, Will this last?
Opinion polling and its effect on the development of military strategy, APC upgrade project, Winograd Commission report, perceptions of single-Service biases, Super Hornet purchase, East Timor, lessons from the Singapore Strategy, Psychiatric casualties and suicide
Commentary:
No Defence White Paper in Australia has ever been adequately funded. None have been followed through with the investment promised or needed to execute them. Writing a new defence white paper in 2008 (a US presidential election year) will be difficult. Given the failure to fund past White Papers, and the numerous flaws in using them to dictate capability development, the process for preparing white papers must also be reformed.
The US troop surge in Iraq has allowed new tactics to be employed and they appear to be working.
Why is Australia in Iraq and why do some so oppose the commitment?
It is wrong that ADF personnel can be personally defamed, or sued for defamation, for doing their duty but must fund their own legal action to obtain redress.
Why is the release of he report of the Polger Review into defence force superannuation taking so long?
Articles:
Australian Defence Spending: As Good as it Gets?
by Dr Mark Thomson
Fresh Ideas for Future Challenges: National Security Policy Under a Labor Government
by Kevin Rudd
Themistocles: Ancient thinking all at sea?
by Dr Paul Monk
The Sea-based Commonwealth
by Dr Norman Friedman
Australia's Oil Security
by Michael Richardson
Recognising Australian Peacekeeping
by Major General Tim Ford (Retd)
Tank Operations in Modern Counter-Insurgency Warfare
by Andrew Erskine
The Super Hornet Purchase: A Good Save to a Poor Plan
by Robert Marlow
Reviews and review essays:
25 April 1915: The Day the Anzac Legend Was Born
by David Cameron
reviewed by Glenn Wahlert
Backs to the Wall: A Larrikin on the Western Front
by George Dean Mitchell (with a foreword by Robert Macklin)
reviewed by Dr Michael Tyquin
The Torch and the Sword: A History of the Army Cadet Movement in Australia
by Dr Craig Stockings
reviewed by Dr Jean Bou
A Critical Vulnerability: The Impact of the Submarine Threat on Australia's Maritime Defence
1915-1954
by Dr David Stevens
reviewed by Richard Pelvin
Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks
by Leigh Sales
reviewed by Neil James
The Defence Theory of Relativity
by Brigadier Brian Cooper
reviewed by Dr Mark Thomson
Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present
by Michael B. Oren
a review essay by Ric Smith
Unintended Consequences: The United States at War
by Professor Emeritus Kenneth J. Hagan and Associate Professor Ian J. Bickerton
reviewed by Jamie Cullens
Obituaries:
Major Leonard Oswald Hansen, OAM (Retd)