729 research outputs found
Non-Western Airpower: Diverse, Dissimilar and Disruptive
No full textNon-Western users of airpower are moving beyond the paradigms established last century. Peter Layton examines the application of coercive airpower by China, Iran, Hamas, the Houthis and Russia. These disparate cases share three characteristics: diversity in the actors employing airpower; dissimilarity in the varied technology being used; and disruptiveness to traditional, well-established ideas about airpower. These characteristics are useful for discussing the broad implications of the emerging non-Western style of air operations.Full Tex
Past National Mobilisation Insights: Supply Chains, the People and Supporting Great Power Allies (Working paper)
No full textIn this multi-author edition of the Centre of Gravity series, four leading thinkers explore issues and opportunities of mobilisation in Australia.
Peter Layton explores recent history to argue that Australian defence strategies, and accordingly the ADF’s force structure, need to be designed cognizant of national mobilisation possibilities in Past National Mobilisation Insights: Supply Chains, the People and Supporting Great Power Allies.
Zach Lambert highlights that deliberate foreplaning, especially in concert with the Unites States and South Pacific, can improve Australian mobilisation and sustainment capacity in mutually beneficial ways in Break in Case of War – the Australian/United States Alliance and the Argument for Military Scaling.
Nathan K. Finney argues that that to determine gaps in force structure and capabilities for expansion, a more robust discussion and analysis must occur, including re-establishing scalability as a core tenant of defence policy in Preventing a Glass Cannon: Increasing the Flexibility and Stamina of the Australian Army.
Chris Barrie necessitates a national debate on the nature, form, requirements and incentives for a universal service scheme in AUSS+IE – Why Australia needs a universal service scheme.Full Tex
Liquid light and silicon dreams
No full textPeter Cannings, Graham Diprose and Peter Layton have produced an inaugural collection of original and evocative imagery exploring the creative integration of light, colour and form in a fusion of traditional and digital technologies
Elijah Everett
No full textTypescript of a brief history of Elijah Everett, who was killed by Indians in 1866 during a military expedition in southern Utah during the Black Hawk War. Material from an article by John S. Adams in Peter Gottfredson\u27s book, History of Indian Depredations in Utah, and from an account by Richard Heber Benson in 1936. Typed by Layton J. Ott in 193
Fighting Artificial Intelligence Battles
No full textIt is a time of rapid disruptive technological change, especially in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). While this technology has been developed by and for the commercial sector, the apparent potential for AI in military applications is now leading armed forces worldwide to experiment with embryonic, AI-enabled defence systems to determine how these could best be used for combat and peacetime tasks.
Australia is no different, with funding allocated in the 2020 Defence Strategic Update to begin introducing AI capabilities into Defence. This process will involve developing AI applications that address defined tactical-level and strategic-level military problems, building a skilled AI workforce, engaging with partners and allies, integrating ethics into AI applications and conducting AI experiments. A tangible demonstration of this plan in action is the opening this year of the Defence Technology Acceleration ColLab at Fairbairn, Australian Capital Territory.
Peter Layton's paper contributes to this broadly based movement by considering the role AI might play in future sea, land and air combat operations at the tactical and operational levels of war. This is a little examined area, as much of the discussion so far has focused on the key technological issues and concerns. These deliberations have indicated that AI might be a significant technology in future wars, but there remain numerous uncertainties. This paper provides a starting point from which to begin a debate that will help to resolve some of these uncertainties. [...]Full Tex
The Grand Strategies of Great Powers (Book review)
No full textThis is not just another book on grand strategy. Those often simply market the author’s proposed grand strategy; this book is much more useful. The Grand Strategies of Great Powers by Tudor A Onea provides readers with the tools necessary to be able to critique and evaluate diverse historical, current and proposed future grand strategies. To make the task manageable, Onea constrains his grand strategy exploration to the great powers, commencing with Peter the Great’s Russia.No Full Tex
From gnostics to monastics : studies in Coptic and early Christianity in honor of Bentley Layton /
No full textThis collection of studies is offered in honor of Bentley Layton by twenty-three of his colleagues and former students. Prof. Layton taught the history of ancient Christianity and also the Coptic language at Yale University for forty years beginning in 1976. At that time he was already recognized internationally as a leading figure in the publication and study of the Coptic Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi Codices and in Coptic linguistic and manuscript studies, two areas of research that are represented in this volume by sections on Gnostic, Valentinian, and Manichaean literature, and on Coptic language and texts. A section on Egyptian monasticism pays tribute to Prof. Layton's fundamental contributions to the study of the late antique monastic leader and Coptic author Shenoute. A final section looks north across the Mediterranean Sea to early Chistianity in the Wider Late Roman World.Includes bibliographical references and indexes.Valentinians and their demons: fate, seduction, and deception in the quest for virtue -- First thoughts on the structure of the Apocryphon of John (NHC II, 1 and Par.) and divine providence in "classic Gnostic' literature -- "The virgin whom the forces did not defile": Norea and the virginal spirit in The reality of the rulers -- La dispositio de l' Évangile de Judas -- Some Aporiae in the Gospel of Judas -- Valentinians on the Euphrates? -- À propos de la neusis [Greek word] dans les textes de Nag Hammadi -- Christ's gift-Gift to Judas: singing the spiritual transaction at the heart of the betrayal -- À la recherche des manuscrits coptes de la région thébaine -- A new verb form in Coptic -- The inscriptions of late antique Egypt (ILAE) database: digitizing textual culture -- Some lesser known construct forms of Coptic -- Musings on neutralization in Coptic -- The use of the Psalms in Shenoute's Tractate He who sits upon His throne -- Emotional communities and emotional suffering in Shenoute's White Monastery federation: sadness, anger, and fear in select works of Shenoute -- Curriculum vitae et memoriae: the life of Saint Onophrius and Local practices of monastic commemoration -- Shenoute for historians: The Pneueit Incident (a monastic leader and anti-pagan violence in late antique southern Egypt) -- Pachomius and his successors in the library of Deir Anba Shenouda -- Two different walling systems of the Egyptian monasteries: a comparison -- Jews and Christians in Upper Egypt: Apa Shenoute of Atripe -- Reading Abraham in the White Monastery: fathers, sources, and history -- The misfortunes of Triphis and religious change in late antique Egypt. -- The Adventus of Peter and Paul: evidence of Roman superiority to Constantinople in a letter of Gregory I.This collection of studies is offered in honor of Bentley Layton by twenty-three of his colleagues and former students. Prof. Layton taught the history of ancient Christianity and also the Coptic language at Yale University for forty years beginning in 1976. At that time he was already recognized internationally as a leading figure in the publication and study of the Coptic Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi Codices and in Coptic linguistic and manuscript studies, two areas of research that are represented in this volume by sections on Gnostic, Valentinian, and Manichaean literature, and on Coptic language and texts. A section on Egyptian monasticism pays tribute to Prof. Layton's fundamental contributions to the study of the late antique monastic leader and Coptic author Shenoute. A final section looks north across the Mediterranean Sea to early Chistianity in the Wider Late Roman World
China's Enduring Grey-Zone Challenge
No full textOver the last decade, China’s strategists have devised an imaginative grey-zone approach that leverages perceived fundamental geo-strategic trends to give China a persistent strategic advantage over others. This grey-zone strategy is incremental, slowly nibbling at the edges, making use of diverse military and non-military measures, being careful not to drive others into a major war, controlled at the highest Party levels and enduring. A pushback by another country may mean a temporary Chinese pullback, but China’s grey-zone strategists will be back better than ever having learnt from their short-term reversal.
Australia is now concerned by China’s ongoing grey-zone actions. In a key judgment, Australia’s Defence Strategic Update 2020 determined that, ‘Defence must be better prepared to respond to these activities, including by working more closely with other elements of Australia’s national power.’ This is no simple task. The Communist Party’s grey-zone approach is innovative. The solutions to it will also need to be.
This paper initially discusses the background to China’s contemporary grey-zone activities. This includes the conceptual frameworks within which China’s grey-zone operations fit and an examination of three current Chinese grey-zone activities: the seminal South China Sea activities, the air incursions in the East China Sea, and the violent clash between Indian and Chinese armed forces in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas. The paper’s second half moves forward in time to set out how China’s grey-zone operations may evolve over the next decade. This forms the basis for discussing strategic-level responses including a possible measured forward planning approach, deterrence concerns and organisational changes. The final chapter further narrows down into just air and space power matters and involves air policing, crisis hotlines, surveillance drones and emerging technology.No Full Tex
U.S.S. Macon The Last U.S. Navy Rigid Airship
No full textRecorded for a talk presented at the Naval Postgraduate School's Dudley Knox Library, December 14, 2010.Included are slides for a talk by Prof. Layton. Note that each slide contains a "play" button that initiates a recorded narrative by the author. In addition is a set of U.S.S. Macon images to accompany the presentation
Australia’s Defence Strategy: Evaluating Alternatives for a Contested Asia
No full textMany books on Australian defence simply repeat old beliefs. This valuable new work does not, instead breaking new ground in proposing a new strategic approach, potentially revitalising Australian defence debates. Importantly, this is not just a work for Australians; it is also very useful for an international audience in suggesting a well-reasoned theoretical framework for both developing and evaluating new defence strategies – the latter a particular innovation. In matters of theory, the book is firmly set within the realist paradigm of the International Relations discipline that suggests that all states act the same whether authoritarian or democratic. As the book progresses, however, this perspective creates some practical strategic difficulties.No Full Tex
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