By: Robbin Laird, editor

The focus of this book is upon the changing strategic environment facing the two Obama Administrations. We take the reader year by year from 2009 through 2016 and examine the global shifts and how the Obama Administration saw these shifts and dealt with them.

As Professor Kenneth Maxwell notes in the forward to the book: “The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United States President Barack Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” That was the hope. Many others in addition to the Nobel peace prize committee shared this hope.

“But what was Obama’s execution of these stated ideals in real time. Did he fulfil these high expectations?

“The Nobel peace prize committee in 2009 perhaps confused words with future performance. For Obama is if nothing else a great wordsmith. It is the exploration of these contradictions over Obama’s two terms which makes this book such indispensable reading.”

Deterrence and Warfighting in the XXIst Century

By: Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake

As Vice Admiral (Retired) Dewolfe Miller underscores: “Ultimately, peer threats are what drives change and inspires clarity in the way the Navy mans, trains, and equips its forces to defend freedom and deter aggression on a global scale. “A Maritime Kill Web Force in the Making” is the story of the evolution of the US Navy and its preparation for high-end warfare.

“This is essential because the future of combat is to bring trusted and verifiable assets to the fight. The emphasis has been on connectivity, accelerated tactical decision making, as well as common equipment, that allows integration of systems within single services, across services and into allied services in a deliberate and disciplined manner. This publication provides a timely reminder of why the transformation of today’s force is so necessary.”

By: Robbin Laird

In Australia and Indo-Pacific Defence: Anchoring a Way Ahead, author and editor of over thirty books, Robin Laird, brings to bear his expertise on defence and security affairs to make sense of contemporary Australian international security and defence policy.

As John Blaxland argued: “This is an important book by a very well connected, informed and astute observer of Australia’s circumstances as they pertain to defence challenges, US alliance dynamics, and technological as well as policy and political hurdles.”

Preparing for the High-End Fight

By: Robbin F. Laird

This book focuses on the USMC in the strategic shift from the Middle Eastern land wars to the return to great power competition and the high-end fight. The path whereby the Marines have generated their capabilities to engage in full spectrum crisis management began with the introduction of the Osprey in 2007, and then entered a new phase with the introduction of the F-35 and now has entered another phase whereby the Marines are working ways to more effectively distributed the force through enhanced mobile and expeditionary basing.

By: Robbin Laird

This report focuses on the work of MAWTS-1 in 2023. As the end of course video for WTI-1-24 starts: “It is not a question of if the Marine Corps will go into combat. It is only a matter of when.”

Meeting the 21st Century Authoritarian Challenge.

By: Robbin F. Laird and Murielle Delaporte

The Return of Direct Defense in Europe catalogs the rise of the 21st century authoritarian powers. Putin’s Russia, Chinese global reach, but also Turkey’s President Erdogan’s agenda, pose new challenges for the direct defense of liberal democracies. The focus is upon Europe and, among other themes, its response to the twin shocks of Crimea and the migration influxes from the war-torn Middle East, a migration dynamic aided and abetted by the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War.

By: Robbin Laird

This book provides an update on the evolution of the ADF and of Australian defence through the lens of the 2023 Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminars.

By: Robbin Laird

The Osprey provides an important stimulant for the shift in con-ops whereby the Navy‘s experimentation with distributed operations intersects with the U.S. Air Force’s approach to agile combat employment and the Marine Corps’ renewed interest in Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO).

In other words, the reshaping of joint and coalition maritime combat operations is underway which focuses upon distributed task forces capable of delivering enhanced lethality and survivability.

Deterrence and Warfighting in the XXIst Century

By: Robbin Laird, editor

The essays in this volume address the epochal change we are going through as a society. We have highlighted some of the key developments affecting the evolution of defense and security challenges facing the United States and its key allies, as well as innovations and developments in selected military technologies and concepts of operations.