Australian Journal of Defence and Strategic Studies, volume 4 number 2

This issue of the AJDSS considers questions of continuity and change in war through to challenges and opportunities for Australia and what conventional deterrence means in the Australian context.

The issue starts with Professor Beatrice Heuser JG Grey Oration, delivered at the Blamey Theatre at the Australian Defence College during her visit in September, as the 2022 Professor Jeffrey Grey Distinguished Visiting Chair.

In the peer-reviewed papers, Cameron Moore and Jo Brick consider the cultural and constitutional foundations of Australian civil-military relations and Samuel White explores how first nation thinking may inform modern military strategists thinking on the spectrum of competition, grey-zone operations and the global rules-based order.

In June, the Centre for Defence Research (CDR) held a profession of arms seminar on conventional deterrence - considerations for Australia, from which four of the CDR presenters have contributed commentaries to the focus section. Van Jackson critiques the US National Defense Strategy concept of integrated deterrence. Benjamin Zala examines the effects of advanced conventional weapons on US nuclear deterrence, then considers how Australia might use a hypersonic missile technology capability to have deterrent effects. Michael Clarke discusses the differences in Western and Chinese interpretations of the concepts of deterrence and compellence and the implications this holds. Finally, Matthew Sussex examines the Russian approach to deterrence and assesses some of the implications of Russia's 'strategic deterrence' for Western strategic practice in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Also featuring Michael Evans's review essay of The New Art of War: The Origins, Theory and Future of Conflict by Colonel Geoffrey F Weiss and Strategia: A Primer on Theory and Strategy for Students of War by Colonel Charles S Oliviero.

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