Top Research Papers on Defence and Strategic Studies

This paper questions whether the Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 risks creating an arms race in space. It fi nds that while other countries and regional groupings have their own space programmes, these are largely civilian, money-making enterprises. The USA currently has the pre-eminent military presence in the space domain, and has a range of options to continue to develop these programs without them being seen as threatening to other states. Despite being alarmed by the Chinese tests, and having stated an unwavering determination to retain its space assets and its superiority in space, t...

Australia’s 2023 Defense Strategic Review provides a blueprint for building more capable armed forces in response to the country’s worsening strategic environment. The document calls for closer integration with Australia’s ally, the United States, and is focused on the threat posed by China. But whether this blueprint will be implemented by the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and those of his successors is an open question.

Canada has contributed to North American strategic defence, and been an ar- dent proponent of strategic stability, since the early Cold War. Though seem- ingly compatible, Canada's involvement in continental strategic defence and advocacy of strategic stability has been nagged by an underlying contradiction. As part of its contribution to the strategic defence of the continent, Canada has tacitly endorsed and facilitated the United States' offensively oriented nuclear strategies. Canada's support of strategic stability, however, has aimed to dis- courage offensive nuclear doctrines and the arm...

Strategic communications has vaulted to the top of the agenda for governments in the West in the vain hope that it might solve a seemingly intractable conflict with jihadist groups, an adversary whose ideology seems to be an essential part of its life-force. However, these governments have failed to grasp why these groups are more adept at using stories to animate their adherents toward the achievement of strategic ends. Unlike Western governments, jihadists use communication to support their use of force. They treat strategic communications as an intrinsic element of war. Consequently, the in...

During the last decade, ‘information warfare’ has become a much-politicised term in Russian domestic and foreign affairs. This article sheds light on the conceptual roots that have been shaping this idea in the Russian academic, political, and public discourse. Moreover, the article points to the major actors leading the politicisation of this idea by promoting narratives describing the so-called ‘Western information war against Russia’. In the context of Russia’s contemporary attempts to re-establish itself as a global power and Western fear and distress associated with Russian activities in ...

Dr Hesketh's picture of the joint Institute of Physics and British Pugwash Group meeting (Physics Bulletin July 1986 p280) cannot go unchallenged. He asks 'Does (the report) register any opposition to SDI from within the USA?'.

British strategic deception during the Second World War provided some of the most extraordinary and successful achievements in the history of British intelligence. Deception operations have been described in some detail in the most accessible volume of the official history of British intelligence. Very little however has emerged of British efforts to engage in strategic deception during the Cold War. The problems of conducting such operations in peacetime and against an adversary possessed of formidable security, intelligence and counter-intelligence capabilities were clearly enormous. The suc...

ABSTRACT As the gap between strategic commitments and budgetary constraints continues to grow, defence organisations have introduced performance management initiatives to support decision-making and to improve governance. However, introducing managerial practices in public organisations, including defence, proves to be challenging. As performance management initiatives within defence suffer from an implementation gap, strategic benefits are not being harnessed. In our study, we first exploit the results of a systematic literature review to better anchor the encountered challenges within the li...

The recent debate about providing military assistance to Ukraine has relevance for the efforts to overcome the current impasse in the Minsk Process and the Normandy Format in particular, and thus the search for a resolution to the conflict regarding the Donbas. But it also concerns larger questions of Germany’s role in Europe, and in security policy more generally. It touches on Germany’s ability to adapt to situations in which other countries are willing to envisage military solutions to existing conflicts. In this sense, it fits into discussions about a more geopolitical EU. And it offers Be...

ABSTRACT The Strategic Compass aims to strengthen the resilience of defence-industrial supply chains and complements the long-term strategic ambition of enhancing the EDTIB. Impetus for restructuring the EU’s supply chains may be provided by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the associated increase in defence budgets, and the promotion of joint projects and cross-border M&A. Since the prospect of achieving strategic autonomy also depends on how ‘local’ current supply chains are, we offer an in-depth investigation of three dimensions related to foreign dependency (company ownership, tender ...

This research is based on intelligent strategy game known as Tower Defence in which players have to make strategic decisions to defend their tower from their enemies. This an interesting game where people can test their wits. In this game the players can build and upgrade their tower to prevent higher damage from enemies. This game requires quick strategic decisions and is fun to play. There are wide array of weapons/equipments that the player can access by using earning points. This game is developed by using Unity platform

Defence planning attempts the impossible – to meet ‘requirements’ that can only be known in the light of events that have yet to occur. Ways in which the prospect for defence planning can be improved include (1) distinguishing the most important defence decisions, and getting them right enough; (2) developing a sufficiently flexible planning capability and dynamic military posture; (3) balancing short- and long-term investments; (4) insisting upon education in general strategic theory as a qualification for the practice of strategy; (5) appreciating that a country can afford to spend on securi...

Labour’s Strategic Defence Review claims to be ‘radical’, leading ‘to a fundamental reshaping of British forces’ while being ‘firmly ground in foreign policy’. Five questions are discussed: 1) Is labour’s defence policy different from that of its Conservative predecessors? 2) Has foreign policy ‘led’ defence policy? 3) How open was the review process and to what extent has Labour succeeded in creating a new consensus on defence policy? 4) Has the SDR successfully addressed the problem of overstretch? 5) Does it provide the ‘modern, effective and affordable armed forces which meet today’s chall...

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Overview This volume commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC). The Centre is Australia’s largest body of scholars dedicated to the analysis of the use of armed force in its political context and one of the earliest generation of post-World War II research institutions on strategic affairs. The book features chapters replete with stories of university politics, internal SDSC activities, cooperation among people with different social and political values, and conflicts between others, as well as the Centre’s public achievements. It also details the evo...

With the new Strategic Defence Review underway Michael Codner here identifies the major military options available to the Government, exploring their strategic implications. Beginning with the premises behind the Review he then sets out the strategic environment in which the Review is taking place and the objectives of security policy Highlighting three main strategic options—a contributory strategic concept a gendarmerie option and an expeditionary concept—he then discusses the major trends in direction these could take—from high to low intensity capability and to national autonomy joint inte...

Satellite navigation, communications and imagery are critical to military doctrine. They provide the capability and functionalities required to operate increasingly complex military assets with unprecedented precision. On account of their growing importance, there is a need for EU member states to develop their own satellite infrastructure, and to ensure control over and superiority in the space landscape in which satellites operate in order to protect their security. This paper analyses the EU Space Strategy, which is the first of its kind, identifying its strengths and areas where there is r...

ABSTRACT With this special issue of Defence Studies, we situate defence planning as a constitutive element of defence and strategic studies. Indeed, in addition to the usual “downstream” focus on the use or non-use of force, on policy decision-making in foreign relations, military operations and global external engagement, we argue for the utility of an increased “upstream” focus on what is a major part of everyday defence and security policy practice for military, civilian administrative and political leadership: the forward-looking preparations for the armed forces and other capabilities of ...

The conclusion is that the military mindset, which is predicated on clashes with dynamic, adaptable opponents, is a more dependable strategy than the prevalent cyber-hygiene paradigm.

In a November 2020 missile-defence test, the US demonstrated that the SM-3 Block IIA missile could destroy a target representing an intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM). This was the first time a ship-based missile has intercepted an ICBM-class target, and the success of the test has given proponents of missile defence an opportunity to argue that the SM-3 should be integrated into the country’s existing defences against long-range missiles. Critics argue that this step could threaten crisis stability in a potential conflict between the US and China or Russia.

The intensification of rivalries between the US and China, and, in recent years, between the US and Russia, has deeply affected how middle powers relate to these great powers. Scholars have argued that middle powers are increasingly adopting “hedging” strategies to maximize their benefits and limit the consequences of the great power competition for their security and status. This paper revisits the concept of hedging and assesses whether two prominent US allies—Australia and Canada—have resorted to hedging in place of conventional alternatives like bandwagoning and balancing. The paper system...

The main focus of this paper consists in the methods applicable to the implementation of strategic analysis with processing strategic documents of the Czech Defence Department. The article covers the interviews with processors of those documents. Based on the interviews, an original theory of strategic and conceptual documents creation was elaborated using the methodology of grounded theory. This new theory contains all the identified problems and shortcomings, their possible causes and possible solutions or improvements. The theory can serve as a starting point for the analysis of strategic p...

Ballistic-missile proliferation national missile defence theatre-missile defence boost-phase ballistic-missile defence.

The network and system planning studies for the DISCON project were initiated in 1976 and led to Requests for Proposals in 1977 and tenders being called in 1979, with the current objective to implement DISCON nation-wide during the 1980s.

Three main objectives: to encourage strategic research and development that will result in innovation and excellence in new products and services, to enhance the competitiveness of Canadian aerospace and defence companies and to foster collaboration between research institutes, universities, colleges and the private sector.

Reports on research into the relationship between European defence manufacturing firms and their experience of cross‐border strategic alliances. The research takes in 135 cross‐border strategic alliances involving UK and European defence manufacturing firms, ranging from firms heavily dependent on defence contracts to firms whose defence interests make up less than 10 per cent of overall business. These firms manufacture telecommunications, transport, information, lethal platforms and components for the operation of these platforms for military organisations. A main aim is to ascertain the ext...

Many people have misgivings about the strategy of nuclear deterrence. Some of those misgivings centre on issues of effectiveness: safety depends entirely upon the dissuasion of an adversary. Other misgivings centre on moral concerns: the essence of deterrence is the threat, and the conditional intention, to kill millions of noncombatants. US President Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative promised an alternative to deterrence, a strategic posture of interception of an adversary's weapons rather than preclusion of the decision to attack. It is conceived as a means of ‘defending’ the United Stat...

The Strategic Defence Initiative and President Reagan's announcement of the American commitment to seek to acquire effective ballistic missile defences certainly form one of the most difficult defence policy issues a British government has had to grapple with since the Second World War. By aiming at a defence against nuclear weapons, SDI reintroduced into strategic debate an issue which had been shelved at the start of the 1970s, not only because of the signing of the ABM Treaty, but also because ballistic missile defences (BMD) seemed inherently difficult against a determined enemy. The SDI i...

This Adelphi Paper examines the national strategies designed to cope with the emerging societal vulnerabilities and offers appropriate roles for both public and private sectors.

Canada proved to be a reliable and cooperative partner of the Americans on a variety of air defence initiatives in the early Cold War. Both countries constructed a dense network of radar lines, prioritized their respective air defence forces, and eventually agreed to a binational North American Air Defence Command (NORAD), imbued with the operational control of both countries' air defence forces. However, Canada's role in strategic defence was just as quickly challenged by the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. NORAD's raison d'etre shifted to the early warning and tracking of...

A medical fellowship with the British Antarctic Survey is described to illustrate the benefits to the individual, to the military and to wider international defence engagement efforts.

An empirical study of seventy inter-firm alliances in the aerospace and defence industries reveals the importance of organizational factors in the construction of a typology of such ventures. Three types of alliances are identified. The study also suggests a link between each type and patterns of evolution of the partnerships over time.

In the extraordinary times we now find ourselves in, financial institutions are facing extra - ordinary challenges, and the requirement for robust corporate defence capabilities has never been more evident. While in former times the challenges facing the financial world were continually changing, it is the accelerated rate at which this change is currently occurring which may yet prove to be the greatest challenge to corporate survival.

Part 1 Deployment criteria for strategic defences: strategic desirability - deterrence, strategic stability, arms control technical feasibility - effectiveness, survivability economic affordability - opportunity costs, cost-effectiveness in relation to alternative, cost-effectiveness at the margin. Part 2 An accidental launch protection system: evaluation - strategic desirability, technical feasibility, economic affordability. Part 3 A ground-based defence of military targets: evaluation - strategic desirability, the impact of US ground-based defences on deterrence, the impact of mutual ground...

It is argued that the Australian Defence Organisation needs an improved strategic data planning mechanism in order to develop a more holistic and effective approach to managing its capability-related data.

Discusses how recent changes in the European defence market have forced leading defence companies to make significant changes to their corporate strategy. Examines these changes, reviews the existing literature on strategic change in the defence sector and provides a detailed case study of British Aerospace. Shows that the process of strategy formulation is complex and changing. Moreover, makes it clear that the defence market is restructuring at a European and international level and that the process of managerial collaboration is intensifying. Says that the future of the defence industry and...

Abstract : Whilst a common European Defence Policy might be the aspiration of some European States, is the next logical step - an autonomous European Defence capability - either desirable and/or feasible? This paper will cover the background and apparent momentum for greater European Defence integration and discuss its desirability from a British, European, U.S. and NATO perspective.

As the United Kingdom faces a defence review, most probably in 2010, it needs to clarify an agenda befuddled by human-security needs and the publicity given to international terrorism. The war in Afghanistan rests on the assumption that the ‘special relationship’ with the United States remains the central pillar of defence thinking. Another assumption is that major inter-state war is unlikely. Such an expectation suggests that deterrence continues to play an important if under-recognised role. Britain remains ready to use war to pursue its policy goals, but the wars in which it has engaged sin...

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). The Strategic Compass: Charting a New Course for the EU’s Security and Defence Policy

ABSTRACT Discourses around “strategic autonomy” and “sovereignty”, traditionally used at the state level, have been recently circulated within the EU supranational context regarding the European defence technological and industrial base, dual-use and disruptive research and innovation, and advances in the tech and digital domains. This article explores whether a high-politics logic intrinsic to “strategic autonomy” and “sovereignty” has been transplanted at the EU-level to enhance the strategic priority of various lower-politics policy fields across tech and digital policy initiatives and inst...

Small states that base their defence strategy on the concept of total defence, even if they do not defeat a stronger opponent militarily, and in the course of an armed conflict deny the enemy an absolute victory according to their criteria, and at the same time protect their national interests, can consider such an outcome victory. Victory at strategic level is conditioned, and not entirely determined, by military victories at tactical and operational level. Claiming victory at strategic level is a qualitative and political perception of state leaders, while at a lower level it is mostly the s...

In March 2022, the European Union adopted a ‘Strategic Compass for Security and Defence’, a joint strategy to strengthen the bloc’s military capabilities by 2030. EU member states have long under-invested in research and development in their defence sectors and have proved less able than competitors such as China and the United States to adapt emerging and disruptive technologies for use in their armed forces. The changes that the Strategic Compass proposes in this area are incremental rather than transformative, which suggests that there is still not a strong European political consensus for ...

The results show that some methods are used in methodologically wrong way, meanwhile, the most common method used is intuition based on experience, particularly synergistic use of methods called multi-methodology.

The paper explores the evolving role of strategic communication at the operations centre of the Minister of National Defence in Poland, particularly in the period leading up to and during the Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine. The study investigates both proactive communication initiatives and reactive communication in response to citizens’ needs. Our research methodology primarily involved analysing official Polish national defence documents and comparing findings from studies conducted before and during the war in Ukraine. The results show that the conflict had a profo...

ABSTRACT This article explores the new research area of so-called strategic facts by examining the theoretical interaction between political and military elements in the context of defence. The research methodology uses a systems-thinking approach to conceptual interpretation. Specifically, the article references the work of French philosopher Émile Durkheim and his notion of social facts. The study concludes by suggesting that it is possible to compile an explanatory framework of the political-military nexus at the strategic level of defence by applying strategic facts as a model for defence ...

China has far less incentive than the United States to conduct the sort of military campaign in which overall military success depends on success in cyber defence.

The topic of hazardous material management and transport, especially nuclear waste, is gaining even more importance in theoretical and professional research, as well as in the everyday life in the EU countries, since the awareness of environmental protection and safety is on the rise. Nevertheless, the implications of transport of nuclear waste are an increasing concern of other European countries (non EU), especially in the Balkans. Furthermore, this topic has significant political and security implications on the global level, since nuclear waste storage and transport is prone to potential t...

The paper identifies and describes the key initiatives in the field of security and defence conditioning the EU’s achievement of strategic autonomy in this area and the main problems of their implementation.

Research outcomes proved limited level of understanding and implementation of leadership theoretical framework in daily business and an insufficient application of all available instruments for people motivation and support including the approach „leading by example“.

ABSTRACT Australia published a Strategic Update in 2020 to its 2016 Defence White Paper. The update represents a portentous shift in Australia’s understanding and response to its strategic environment. China’s increasingly belligerent stance, its use of grey-zone activities and an increasingly jittery United States have pushed Australia to actively seek robust anti-access/area denial (A2AD) capabilities. In addition, Australia intends to focus on its neighbourhood while shedding its anxieties regarding the Quad. The piece aims to briefly contextualise the ramifications of the update with its m...