Defence and the Media in Time of Limited War

First Published in 2004. Events in the Gulf Crisis of 1990-91 have highlighted the importance of the increasingly complex and difficult relations between Defence and the Media in time of War - especially in time of limited conflict when the well-being - let alone the security - of the home nation may not be affected. This problem has become especially acute given the growth of the new high technology media and its global spread and immediacy. The question of how to reconcile the competing demands for secrecy on the one hand and the public's right to know on the other is fast emerging as a major question of our times. In Brisbane during 3-5 April 1991, there was held what is believed to be the first ever International Conference on the topic of Defence and the Media in Time of Limited Conflict to look at this and other issues stemming from the problem. Jointly funded by the Queensland University of Technology and the Australian Department of Defence, the three-day Conference was a major success, attracting 160 delegates from Great Britain, the United States, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, New Zealand, France, Indonesia and, of course, Australia. This volume publishes nearly all the papers delivered at this conference whose main focus was on post-1945 limited wars especially Vietnam, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Grenada and the Gulf; all of which receive detailed analysis.

Peter R. Young is Senior Research Fellow in Defence Media Studies at the School of Media and Journalism, Queensland University of Technology. He retired from the Australian Army with the rank of Major after service including Vietnam.

The main value of Defence and the Media in Time of Limited War" is...as a primary source marking the views and opinions of those who took part in the Brisbane conference, and the state of military-media relations as an academic discipline in Australia at the time. In these terms the book is a success, and both the editor and the conference organisers should be well pleased with what they have achieved." Stephen Badsey, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst