ABSTRACT
Defence policy and civil-military relations are well established fields for political science. This chapter argues that defence policy urgently requires special sources of criticism and as a guarantee against rigidity. The relative lack of party questions and the overwhelming influence of the budgetary factor necessitate this, but the basic decisions in defence tend to be impulsive and traditional because they are so nearly immeasurable. Defence policy requires an absolute military contribution: that is, a contribution from military advisers from their own point of view, not one already dominated by non-military factors. The question for the Australian type of system is whether entrenched sources of argument about policy are not undeveloped or vitiated to a dangerous degree. The chapter describes two sources, and indicates their severe limitations — that is, the higher defence organization and the military profession.
