Defending Australia.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

SIR: The intellectual rigor which Paul Monk (September 2005) brings to the defence debate is to be commended, and demonstrates, somewhat alarmingly, the inflexibility within Defence to recognise the massive change which is occurring across the whole spectrum of national security. The collapse of militaristic communist regimes and the end of nation-state epochal wars, as identified by Phillip Bobbit in The Shield of Achilles, coupled with the heightened threat of international terrorism has, as he points out, introduced a new paradigm into strategic thinking which needs to be addressed with some urgency. This appears to have bypassed our defence planners as well as most commentators. Otherwise we shall embark on an expensive re-equipment program which will not be relevant to our new circumstances.

As Monk points out, the "rusted on" driving elements of current defence planning (which are never stated but which are self-evident to any observer) are the threat of invasion and the threat to our cities. This thinking can be traced back to 1908 and 1945 respectively. This in turn leads to a force structure based primarily on air power, a force ...