Abstract
Peter Cosgrove is the best known Australian military officer in generations. I guess you would need to go back to World War II and Thomas Blamey to find an Australian general who was as well known as Cosgrove, and back to World War I and John Monash to find one who enjoyed the same public esteem. The news that he will retire in the middle of the year raises deep questions about the nature of the job of chief of defence force, and who is to follow him into it. The office of CDF will not emerge unchanged from Cosgrove's tenure. His successor will find the position not only more public than it was, but also more national, with demands and expectations that go beyond the business of managing and commanding the Defence Force. This is because Cosgrove's public profile has been part cause, part effect of a wider phenomenon: the elevation of the ADF, and especially the army, to a more central place as one of the key institutions of our national life.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 1pp |
No. | 24 January 2005 |
Specialist publication | The Age |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |