National Security Concepts Technological Evolution

National Security Concepts

Technological Evolution and the Future of Armed Conflict:

Technological advances in war and modern weaponry will likely eventually render traditional international military conflict obsolete. While strategic balance in Australia's pat of the world is still evolving, the example of Western Europe and the two global superpowers suggests that outright war between nations will become rare in the future, mainly because of parity in operational capabilities and the threat of unlimited escalation such as exemplified by the mutually assured destruction (MAD) concept that preserved peace throughout a half-century-long Cold War between East and West..

Principle Contemporary Threats to National Security:

The main role of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) continues to be the ability to conduct military combat operations against hostile armed forces of other nations. However, the principle emerging threat to Australian national security is terrorism perpetrated against civilians and other soft targets both within the Commonwealth and also outside national borders against Australian interests worldwide.

Is the Concept of "Forward Defence" an Oxymoron?

As the principal threat to national security continues to shift toward domestic and international terrorism, forward defence becomes (arguably) even more important to national security than ever. That is because whereas traditional hostile military operations and mobilizations are difficult to conceal from modern surveillance technology, terrorist attacks perpetrated by non-state actors and new forms of terrorism such as cyber warfare are much more difficult to prevent without intensive proactive and forward-looking measures. Unlike traditional military attacks, by the time acts of terror against soft targets (and cyber attacks) are initiated, it is too late to respond effectively to mitigate their intended effects. Therefore, in the context of contemporary threats, forward defence is not an oxymoron but an absolute necessity.

Military Security, Australian Defence Policy, and the War on Terror:

At the simplest level, the participation of ADF in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased the risk of terrorism against Australian military forces and civilian targets. On a more complex level, the Commonwealth's participation in the global war on terror is part of a long-term defensive effort to protect the entire Southeast Asian and Pacific region against the international terrorist threat.

Task 2 Question Raised:

The nature of the most significant contemporary threat to international security and the domestic security of the Commonwealth raises the question of whether the Second Wave in the historical evolution of strategic military thought is experiencing a resurgence that is largely incapable of being countered effectively by the most sophisticated military resources relied upon by nations for security throughout the 20th century.