‘Old Fashioned’ Military ‘Irrelevant’
0th December
A new research paper published by the University of New South Wales’ Australian Defence Studies Centre argues that the structure of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is increasingly irrelevant to our strategic circumstances.
The author of the paper, entitled Regaining Relevance: Fitting Australia’s Defence Force Structure to the Contemporary Strategic Environment, is Gary Brown, a former long-time defence advisor to the Federal Parliament and now an independent defence and security analyst. "The long-term absence of conventional military threats to Australia suggests that using these sorts of threats as the justification for our defence force structure is open to question," Brown says.
The Australian Defence Studies Centre is a centre of UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
Brown argues that because Australia can make only symbolic, not decisive, contributions to US-led coalition operations, "we should commit only those resources to work with the US to support these symbolic commitments." This would in turn release resources to meet Australia’s genuine security threats.
The paper identifies ‘strategic’ or ‘catastrophic’ terrorism as one such threat. According to Brown, last year’s September 11 attacks could have had consequences far beyond those actually experienced. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the 1984 Bhopal chemical plant disaster are broad indicators of potential damage if terrorists targeted vulnerable installations. Nuclear reactor design, even the modern design for the new Lucas Heights plant, has not yet taken the threat into consideration, Brown argues. The 1998 accident at the Esso Longford gas plant in Victoria, which cut off gas to the state for a fortnight, also indicates the potential scope of strategic terrorism.
The recent warning by the Royal Australian College of Surgeons that our resource-starved health system cannot cope with a major terrorist incident is further evidence that some funds should be diverted from traditional defence spending to better shape national infrastructure for the new security environment, the paper says.
The study will be published on Wednesday 18 December 2002 and is available from the Australian Defence Studies Centre, ADFA, UNSW, Canberra. To obtain a copy, please contact Sue Brown, ADSC on (02) 6268 8849.
Contact details: Louisa Wright, UNSW Media office, tel. (02) 9385 3644 or
Gary Brown, tel. (02) 6291 0195.
The author of the paper, entitled Regaining Relevance: Fitting Australia’s Defence Force Structure to the Contemporary Strategic Environment, is Gary Brown, a former long-time defence advisor to the Federal Parliament and now an independent defence and security analyst. "The long-term absence of conventional military threats to Australia suggests that using these sorts of threats as the justification for our defence force structure is open to question," Brown says.
The Australian Defence Studies Centre is a centre of UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
Brown argues that because Australia can make only symbolic, not decisive, contributions to US-led coalition operations, "we should commit only those resources to work with the US to support these symbolic commitments." This would in turn release resources to meet Australia’s genuine security threats.
The paper identifies ‘strategic’ or ‘catastrophic’ terrorism as one such threat. According to Brown, last year’s September 11 attacks could have had consequences far beyond those actually experienced. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the 1984 Bhopal chemical plant disaster are broad indicators of potential damage if terrorists targeted vulnerable installations. Nuclear reactor design, even the modern design for the new Lucas Heights plant, has not yet taken the threat into consideration, Brown argues. The 1998 accident at the Esso Longford gas plant in Victoria, which cut off gas to the state for a fortnight, also indicates the potential scope of strategic terrorism.
The recent warning by the Royal Australian College of Surgeons that our resource-starved health system cannot cope with a major terrorist incident is further evidence that some funds should be diverted from traditional defence spending to better shape national infrastructure for the new security environment, the paper says.
The study will be published on Wednesday 18 December 2002 and is available from the Australian Defence Studies Centre, ADFA, UNSW, Canberra. To obtain a copy, please contact Sue Brown, ADSC on (02) 6268 8849.
Contact details: Louisa Wright, UNSW Media office, tel. (02) 9385 3644 or
Gary Brown, tel. (02) 6291 0195.
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