Ibid - Australian Army

viii
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the development of Australian Army doctrine
from the end of the Vietnam War in 1972 to the publication of Land
Warfare Doctrine 1, The Fundamentals of Land Warfare in March
1999. It analyses the rise of Army doctrine for continental defence
operations in the 1970s and dissects the trend towards low-level
conflict in the 1980s. The paper looks closely at the logic behind
the Army in the 21st Century (A21) Review and the Restructuring
of the Army (RTA) initiative in the 1990s. The impact on the Army
of Australia’s Strategic Policy 1997 and the important transition in
the late 1990s from a continental to a maritime doctrinal focus are
assessed. The paper contends that Army doctrine became
increasingly rigid, insular and divorced from contemporary
strategic trends during the first half of the 1990s and it investigates
the reasons for these developments.
The paper then attempts to assess how successful the Australian
Army has been in formulating doctrine over the past twenty-seven
years. To this end, problems of strategic guidance, difficulties of
central direction, the impact of the Army’s powerful tactical
tradition and the officer corps’ intellectual approach to doctrine are
analysed. The paper argues that the success of doctrine
development must be measured against its ability to promote the
interrelated elements of learning, anticipation and adaptability in a
military organisation. It is suggested that the Army performed well
in the first category in the 1970s and 1980s, but largely failed to
anticipate new trends and to adapt to the ramifications of dramatic
political and strategic change during the first half of the 1990s. The
paper assesses the content of the new Fundamentals of Land
Warfare 1999 and argues that the Army must view doctrine as
a journey rather than as a destination. Finally, it is suggested that
the Army must take the opportunity to use the new Land Warfare
Doctrine (LWD) series to devise an innovative and dynamic
approach to land warfare in the 21st century.