Parliament and war: A sleeper wakes
by
Rory Medcalf
-
30 August 2010 11:57AM
Last month we published this paper by former Australian Chief of Army Peter Leahy. In the midst of the election campaign, and the author's comments elsewhere on other defence issues, it drew only fleeting media attention.
But, as momentum gathers over the argument for a parliamentary debate on Australia's role in Afghanistan, Peter Leahy's Lowy publication is gaining fresh and deeper attention. It was the subject of a feature article in the weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review (frustratingly, not available online), has caught the attention of the Greens, and could prove an influential work in reopening the question of whether and how Australia's parliament might authorise executive decisions to deploy force abroad.
Photo by Flickr user yewenyi, used under a Creative Commons license.
