How ready for war is Australia? Not just our military – our industry, our governments & our society? ⬇️
We are going to kick off a series of posts focused on mobilisation and scaling. We can no longer afford to just focus on the military, but need to consider what 21st century National mobilisation looks like. The ongoing war in Ukraine has dispelled the notion that the ‘triumph’ liberal democracy and peak globalisation had rendered war a choice of statecraft that is scheduled on the whims of a benign hegemon.
Australia in particular has forgotten how much it takes when war becomes large and long. Our lucky country tendencies and she’ll be right mindset has not positioned us as a nation ready for the challenges of the present. Our economy has been engineered as if war was consigned to the history books, not an unfortunate feature of an imperfect world. Australian Strategic Policy Institute‘s Marc Ablong has a great read on this topic – ‘Industrial Mobilisation is Defence’s True Test’:
“The hard truth to be learned from WWII is that a successful total national effort requires forethought, legislative authority and a sustained, coordinated investment long before crisis breaks. The very essence of national support to Defence is the civil sector’s seamless, scalable delivery to the warfighter of capability, from munitions to maintenance. To believe that the modern, hyper-efficient and globally disaggregated industrial model will spontaneously pivot to meet the extraordinary attrition rates and surge requirements of major conflict is to ignore history.”
On a spectrum of autarky to Amazon, Australia has gone all in on an Amazon model – just in time globalised trade. In the halcyon days of the unipolar moment this has allowed Australians to enjoy short term economic benefits while the sun shone brightly. But it is now clear that Australian is facing a global context where great power competition is impacting trade and poses significant National Security challenges in our region. This will require reengineering our economic model and a greater focus on rebuilding resiliency – in our military, in our industrial base and in our society.
We’ll give the last word to Marc Ablong and find a link to his article in the comments:
“Industrial mobilisation is the ultimate test of national resilience. It is a recognition that the sinews of a nation’s economy are, in extremis, the lifeline of its armed forces. We cannot afford to wait for the conflict to begin before we start priming the pump. Strategic foresight, deliberate industrial planning and genuine public-private partnerships are non-negotiable prerequisites for security in the 21st century.”
More to come on this topic and food for thought as always!
🖼️ via the WWII United States War Production Board