Event: The Keogh Oration - The Strategic Utility of Land Power in an Australian Context - Eliot Cohen

Throughout history, land power has been one of the predominant strategic tools of nations. However, as economic power shifts towards Asia, focus is on strategic power at sea in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. What role can land forces, such as the Australian Army, find in this evolving dynamic? Join us on August 13 as Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies John Hopkins University, speaks to the evolving utility of strategic land power. Dr Cohen will be introduced by the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison.

Eliot Cohen is Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He directs the strategic studies program at SAIS and the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, which he founded.  He has twice won the SAIS Excellence in Teaching Award.  For ten years he led a SAIS partnership with the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in providing executive education to general officers and senior Defense Department officials, the National Security Studies program.

A 1977 graduate of Harvard College he received his Ph.D. there in political science in 1982.  From 1982 to 1985 he was Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard, and Assistant Dean of Harvard College.   In 1985 he became a member of the Strategy Department of the United States Naval War College.  In February 1990 he joined the Policy Planning Staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and in July of that year he was appointed professor of strategic studies at SAIS.

From April 2007 through January 2009 he served as Counselor of the Department of State.  A principal officer of the Department, he had special responsibility for advising the Secretary on matters pertaining to Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia, as well as general strategic issues.  He was the lead Department of State liaison with the Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan.   He represented the Department of State in interagency coordination with senior National Security Council staff, Department of Defense, and intelligence community officials on a number of issues, including the Syrian/North Korean reactor crisis of 2007, and the Somali piracy problem in 2008.

Eliot Cohen is the author of the prize-winning Supreme Command:  Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime  (2002).  His other books are Commandos and Politicians  (1978) and Citizens and Soldiers (1985).  He is, as well, co-author of Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War (1990), Revolution in Warfare? Air Power in the Persian Gulf (1995), and Knives, Tanks, and Missiles:  Israel’s Security Revolution (1998), and co-editor ofStrategy in the Contemporary World (2002) and War over Kosovo  (2001).  In 1991-1993 he directed and edited the official study of air power in the 1991 war with Iraq.  For his leadership of The Gulf War Air Power Survey, which included eleven book-length reports, he received the Air Force’s decoration for exceptional civilian service.  His articles have appeared in numerous scholarly and popular journals, and he is, as well, the author of several widely used case studies for senior military and executive education.  His latest book, Conquered Into Liberty, described the origins of the American way of war during two centuries of conflict with Canada.

In 1982 he was commissioned in the United States Army Reserve.  His service included several years as Military Assistant to the Director of Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense.  He has also served as adjunct professor at the United States Army War College, where he advised the Advanced Strategic Art Program, and was a member of the Defense Policy Advisory Board and the National Security Advisory Panel of the National Intelligence Council.  He is currently a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Aspen Strategy Group, and the Committee on Studies of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Lieutenant General David Morrison joined the Army in 1979, after completing a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University. He graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and between 1980 and 1991 he held a variety of regimental positions, from Lieutenant to Major, in Brisbane, Singleton and Newcastle. He was also the Australian Instructor at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, United Kingdom in the period 1987 to 1988. After attending Army Command and Staff College in 1992, he was appointed as the Brigade Major of the 3rd Brigade, deploying in that role to Bougainville as part of Operation Lagoon in 1994, and following his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 1994 he spent two years at Army Headquarters as the Director of Preparedness and Mobilisation.

He was the Commanding Officer of the Second Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR) in 1997 and 1998. Lieutenant General Morrison was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1999 for his services as Brigade Major, Director of Preparedness and Mobilisation and as Commanding Officer 2 RAR.

He was promoted to Colonel in October 1999 and took up the position of Colonel Operations, Headquarters International Force East Timor (INTERFET). On his return to Australia, he was posted to the Deployable Joint Force Headquarters as Chief of Staff. In 2001 he attended the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Canberra, graduating with an Masters of Arts (Strategic Studies). He was promoted to Brigadier in November 2002 and commanded the 3rd Brigade from December 2002 until December 2004. He was then appointed as Director-General Preparedness and Plans - Army and held that position until his promotion to Major General in December 2005.

He became Commander of the Australian Defence Colleges in January 2006 and during that year led a review into Defence's joint education and training system. In April 2007, he was appointed Head Military Strategic Commitments where he served for eleven months before becoming the Deputy Chief of Army in early 2008. During that year he led a review into Army's command and control structure which resulted in the Adaptive Army initiative which had, as one of its key outcomes, the proposed creation of Army's largest command - Forces Command, responsible for force generation and, through the oversight of the Army's Training Continuum, the development of a modern foundation warfighting capability. He was appointed as Land Commander Australia in December 2008 and became Army's first Forces Commander on 1 July 2009. On 24 June 2011, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and on 27 June 2011 he assumed his current appointment of Chief of Army.

For his service to the Australian Army in the fields of training and education, military strategic commitments and force structure and capability; in particular, as Commander Australian Defence College, Head Military Strategic Commitments and Deputy Chief of Army he was appointed as an Officer in the Order of Australia in the 2010 Australia Day Honours list. In February 2012, he was awarded The Legion of Merit, Degree of Commander, by the United States of America, for exceptionally meritorious service as the Chief of the Australian Army.