Opening Salvo

Greetings.

This weblog results from a lifelong interest in the contested and often bloody crossroads where geography, politics, faiths, economics and history intersect and produce crises, divisions, conflicts and wars, among and within states, nations, kingdoms and theocracies.

The title is chosen deliberately, with a focus on strategy, wise counsel and the always difficult art of wisely and prudently applying means to accomplish ends, to borrow from Sir Basil Liddell Hart.  The counsel to be provided here aspires to a standard of factual, realistic and fair argument and commentary.

This blog is written from an Australian point-of-view but with a global interest in strategy and geopolitics and, in particular, the historical sinews of conflict: peoples, faiths, geography, resources, and arms.  This blog will, if relevant, comment on passing ideologies, which have admittedly become more important in the last 250 years in Western politics, though ideology cannot trump facts nor national interests.  Alexander Hamilton was correct: the proper “ends” of strategy are the preservation of national security, national solvency and thus national sovereignty, as a secure and solvent state can do anything, and an insecure and impoverished one can do nothing.  Grand ideas that change regularly matter less than dull realities that endure.

The idea for this blog first started approximately 5 years ago, when I desired a outlet for my own opinions on matters of war, peace and upheaval, or a means of referring interested readers to the interesting and often contrarian opinions of others.  My idea of the blog developed further when I was deployed in the Persian Gulf area of operations.  This blog is the result of that intention and, to some degree, my own experiences of well-executed military operations that had been commenced by governments without a great deal of prior strategic thought, debate and historical awareness, and then continued without public interest and parliamentary scrutiny. This said, no experience of mine entitles me to have my opinion presumed any more or less valid than the opinion of anyone else. 

One of the more troubling aspects of modern life, especially in Australia and other western democracies, is that otherwise intelligent persons accept lazy thinking and clichés, or take refuge in group-think, instead of looking dispassionately at facts.  This readiness to accept the illogical and the unreal seems at its most willing when an idea is proffered by one of today’s ersatz policy-making elite.  More worrying is that citizens of constitutional democracies allow their governments to take refuge in jargon, spin and nonsense, while permitting politicians to eschew the difficult and necessary strategic planning and processes for dealing with our increasingly fractious world.  Worse, we citizens elect policymakers who are, with rare exceptions, provincial and uncurious.  It has been, one supposes, ever thus, though in the case of Australia, we are, in particular, entering an age where the quality of decision-makers - as much as planning, processes and policies  - will only matter more and more to the nation’s security and solvency.

This blog is not a place for partisanship or hackery.  Competing ideas are given respect and fair treatment, even if they are ultimately wrong in principle and/or practice.   I trust I will always live up to these rules, especially when I am criticising an idea and/or a person with who I vehemently disagree.  Counsel, properly understood, is advisory and helpful, not  biased and derogatory.

Finally, this blog is zealous for propagating historical knowledge.  The general historical amnesia of the 'post-Christian' West is too widespread to be doubted, in stark contrast to the long historical memories of Asian, Arab and especially Jewish and Islamic cultures.  However, even the most reluctant Westerner is a prisoner of the history that resulted in the environment he or she inhabits today.  This blog asserts and will defend vigorously not only the value of Australia’s Judeo-Christian and Western inheritance, but will also repeatedly cite the importance of historical lessons to us, and the value of historical events and grievances to others.  The past we cannot remember is too often the past our friend and foes cannot forget.