US land power in the Indo-Pacific : opportunities for the Australian army / Marcus Schultz

"The US Army is undergoing its most consequential period of transformation since the end of the Cold War. The re-emergence of great-power competition and a deteriorating strategic environment are forcing the US Army to rethink not just its approach to land warfare but also its future role alongside the US Marine Corps (USMC) in key regions around the globe. Nowhere is this doctrinal and structural transformation more apparent and meaningful than in the Indo-Pacific—the geographical region linking Asia to Australia via the Southeast Asian archipelago — where the People’s Republic of China (PRC) poses the most acute challenges. The implementation of the US Army’s multi-domain operations (MDO) doctrine and reorganisation is informing a new approach to joint exercises and ‘no gaps’ defence collaboration to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. This transformation holds important insights for US allies and partners making it vital that the US supports its key allies, including Australia and Japan, to engage with the newly created multi-domain task forces (MDTFs). Continued close and proactive Australian defence engagement with the US defence establishment is also likely to be necessary to maintain the momentum provided by enhanced bilateral force posture cooperation as well as to counterbalance China’s destabilising activities in the region. Australia’s new unifying strategic approach to national defence necessitates that the Australian defence establishment and military leaders consider how institutional changes occurring within both the US Army and Australian Army facilitate new opportunities for the use of land power in a heightened threat environment."--Executive summary.