Australia's Defence Challenges
Beyond Biden vs Trump: The other US elections that matter
Many Australians are following the rematch in the 2024 US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Trump's reality TV approach to politics makes it hard to avert…
What should Australia be doing about the South China Sea?
It’s a mark of our turbulent times that China’s dangerous and illegal actions against the Philippines at the Second Thomas Shoal currently only sit in the second tier of…
A “climate defence force” for the Pacific
During the summer political slumber, Australian Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh indicated that Canberra was considering permitting recruitment from Pacific Island Countries …
Economic diplomacy: Strategic funding comes in from the cold
Soft dollars
While the multiples of defence to aid and intelligence to diplomacy spending have received a lot of attention in recent years as they have relentlessly widened,…
Why big projects fail: Climate change and AUKUS submarines
Book review: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (Penguin Random House, 2023)
We don’t need to look at detailed statistics to know that large-scale…
Commentary
Labor's AUKUS woes a boon for Beijing
Originally published in the Australian Financial Review, 3 November 2023.
AUKUS: A debate after the fact is still worth having
Book review: The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace (La Trobe University Press, 2023)
When Robert Menzies announced his retirement in January 1966,…
Australia, China, AUKUS and the squandered advantage
Australia suffers from a deficit of expertise on China’s military capabilities, and it is distorting the national debate about the threat China poses to Australia.
Under the…
AUKUS and intellectual property
While nuclear-powered submarines steal much of the media limelight, the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States is about much…
The Australia-New Zealand alliance in a war with China
A week before New Zealand declared a National State of Emergency for the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, Chris Hipkins made the pilgrimage to Canberra expected of…