Volume II, Number
Education, Training
and Doctrine
The Strategic Corporal
Some Requirements in Training and Education
Major Lynda Liddy
‘ e era of the strategic corporal is here. e soldier of today must possess professional
mastery of warfare, but match this with political and media sensitivity.’
Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, Chief of Army, 18 October 2002
I
n most modern Western armies, soldiers are expected to be not only tech-
nically pro cient in war ghting, but also capable of supervising civil a airs,
providing humanitarian aid and performing a range of activities relating to
order and stability. As networked technologies atten command structures, new
doctrine and revised training regimes are likely to be required in order to prepare
individual soldiers to assume greater responsibility on the multidimensional
21st-century battlespace.
As a result of these trends, the Australian Army must begin to foster a military
culture that is aimed at preparing non-commissioned o cers (NCOs) to become
what has been described as ‘strategic corporals’. e term strategic corporal refers to
the devolution of command responsibility to lower rank levels in an era of instant
communications and pervasive media images.
