Fighting at The Speed of Light: Making it All Work

05/20/2019
By Ed Timperlake Honoring, and empowering human’s engaged in the deadly serious occupation of defending their fellow citizens as combat warriors in putting their life on the line  is everything in a military analysis before any future technology discussions can begin. It is no good to talk about future technologies…

An Update on SP-MAGTF: From the Logistical Point of View

05/20/2019
During my recent visit to Australia, a major focus of attention was upon the challenge facing the Australian Defence Force to sustain that force through a crisis period if a peer competitor was involved. And one of the speakers highlighted the significant challenge of moving beyond the Middle Eastern mindset…

The Australian Elections and Australian Defence

05/20/2019
The defeat of Labor was not widely expected in Australia. Scott Morrison led the Liberals to a largely unanticipated electoral victory. This will mean that as PM in which he clearly led the coalition to victory he will have more authority initially than might be normal in the Aussie context.…

A Look Back at the Remarkable US-Brazilian Military Relationship

05/19/2019
By Kenneth Maxell Frank D. McCann, professor of history emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, has long been an observer of US-Brazilian military relationships. He knows both sides very intimately. He taught at West Point in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. He met privately with the Vice-President of…

Moscow Conference on International Security, 2019

05/16/2019
By Richard Weitz Last month, Second Line of Defense attended the eighht annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS-2019), which met from April 24-26. The Russian capital was surprisingly warm, with the temperature higher than in Washington, but the frigidity of the Russian-U.S. relationship was pervasive at the conference. The…

The Decade Ahead for Europe: An EU Perspective

05/15/2019
By Robbin Laird Clearly, Europe is in crisis. In my own view, it faces a double constitutional crisis. Brexit is an internal constitutional crisis in the "United" Kingdom and poses a constitutional crisis within the European "Union" which is itself undergoing significant regional devolution. The continental European economies are facing…

Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019

05/14/2019
A Joint Task Force consisting of up to four ships, maritime patrol aircraft and more than 1,200 personnel from the Australian Defence Force are deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, a series of key engagement activities with Australia’s regional neighbours. Running from March to May, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is geared towards…