Per Ardua Ad Astra

<p>In 1996 the Royal Australian Air Force celebrated its 75th anniversary of service to the Australian nation. During most of those 75 years a global security environment developed which was known and understood and thus the nation's defense force could be tailored to counter specific threats from within financial guidance. As the world enters the post-Cold War era the hard questions have become; what is the threat how should the new generation military be developed and what should be its purpose in peacetime? Although Australia continues to be a strong supporter of the Western Alliance the emerging post-Cold War world promises new challenges to those previously well known conditions. The aim of this paper is to examine how evolving international domestic and air power trends will affect Australia s force structure and the application of air power post-2010 in Australia s region of interest. As the world and more importantly the region changes so too must government policy and military strategy evolve. Leading the thrust for change are the global regional and national trends which act as signposts to the future. Globally trends include the rise of uncertainty and instability the growth of economic trading blocs and their concomitant effect on nations population growth diminishing defense budgets and the ceaseless technological revolution. Regionally the indicators are for high economic growth a nationalistic struggle for autonomy and a rising awareness of trans-national threats. These nations now seek a greater say in regional affairs and have commenced armed forces xi modernization to give backing to their political dialogue and rhetoric. Nationally Australia's outlook is not so clear.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>