Edward Luttwak is a political scientist known for his works on grand strategy, military history, and international relations. Moving to the United States (US) in 1972, Luttwak received a Doctorate in International Studies in 1975 and has served as a consultant to the US National Security Council; the US Department of State; and the US Army, Navy, and Air Force. While working for the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Net Assessment, Luttwak co-developed the manoeuvre-warfare

The contest of ideas needed to drive Australian military concepts and capabilities into the future can take many forms. Unfortunately, most

Chris McInnes explores the role of cognition in warfare and asks whether we understand the types of cognition needed in the future, and what

Editorial Note: Between February and April 2018, The Central Blue and From Balloons to Drones, will be publishing a series of articles that

We started The Central Blue at the end of 2016 with two goals in mind: to provide a forum for the discussion and debate on issues relating to Australian air power, and to encourage airmen to write about their profession of arms. In 2017, our first full year of operation, we made solid progress towards both of these goals. But there is still much work to be done both in promoting discussion on air power topics, and in actually getting airmen typing. With these challenges in mi

Military exercises provide an opportunity to observe how Defence doctrine is put into action in the field. Here, Flight Lieutenant Emily Chapman provides lessons and reflections from her participation in the Tactical Air Control Party on Army’s Exercise BROLGA STRIKE. Exercise BROLGA STRIKE was the 3rd Combat Brigade’s Combined Arms Training Activity (CATA) conducted over the period 01 Jun – 16 Jun, including a Live Fire Exercise (LFX) component. Almost 3 000 personnel deploy

In her post on joint professional development, Emily Chapman made a powerful argument for closer collaboration between single service outlets, in order to expand intellectual horizons and prevent silos of intellectual excellence. The teams behind Grounded Curiosity, The Central Blue and The Cove agree. We intend to work with Emily to implement some of her ideas and strengthen ties between our forums. We believe that challenging single domain identities and mindsets will help

In this post, Emily Chapman makes the case for increased ‘jointness’ in professional education, outlining a number of proposals to increase collaboration across the services and prevent silos of intellectual excellence. A single RAAF Officer pitched to a predominately Army audience on the need for a Joint Professional Military Education (PME) Association at the inaugural Defence Entrepreneurs Australia Forum in December 2016. As that Officer, I can attest that it was driven b

Today, 2nd December, marks three months since The Central Blue published its first post. Though the start has been modest (25 posts including this one), it has been successful. In the short period that the blog has been active we have received and published posts on a range of topics, from fiction to F-35s, written by a diverse group of authors, from lawyers to Combat Controllers. But there is still a ways to go. The editors’ vision for The Central Blue is that it will become

The Royal Australian Air Force is experiencing a renewed focus on Professional Military Education and Training (PMET). Not only are reviews underway to identify ways to improve the quality of the current PMET system, but oversight of PMET completion is occurring at the highest levels of the organisation. But as Ross Mahoney, the RAF Museum’s Aviation Historian, discusses in this reflective post following on from his attendance at a Royal Canadian Air Force seminar on air powe

Air Force needs to embrace the potential of fiction in the development of the minds of its airmen. Not only will it make Professional Military Education and Training slightly more enjoyable, it may also give rise to a career-long engagement with professional development that will serve Air Force far beyond the immediate needs of individual promotion courses. Let’s face it, Air Force Professional Military Education and Training (PMET) is boring. This is an unfortunate reality,