Sam Roggeveen

Program Director, International Security
Areas of expertise

Australian foreign and defence policy; China’s military forces; US defence and foreign policy; drones and other military technology; trends in global democracy

Sam Roggeveen
Biography
Publications
News and media

Sam Roggeveen is Program Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace, published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.

Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior strategic analyst in Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, where his work dealt mainly with North Asian strategic affairs, including nuclear strategy and Asian military forces. Sam also worked on arms control policy in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and as an analyst in the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

Sam has a longstanding interest in politics and political philosophy, and in 2019 he wrote Our Very Own Brexit: Australia's Hollow Politics and Where it Could Lead Us, about the hollowing out of Western democracy and its implications for Australia. 

Sam writes for newspapers and magazines in Australia and around the world, and is a regular commentator on the Lowy Institute’s international magazine, The Interpreter, of which he was the founding editor from 2007 to 2014.

Sam also serves as lead editor at the Lowy Institute, and editor of the Lowy Institute Papers.

What the Iran war means for the US-China balance
What the Iran war means for the US-China balance
Even in the best-case scenario, China losing a friend in Tehran won’t be the blow Trump might assume.
Immigration: Trump’s puzzling Australia exemption
Immigration: Trump’s puzzling Australia exemption
Why is Australia let off the hook when it presents a bigger target than Europe?
Trump, Greenland and the end of NATO
Commentary
Trump, Greenland and the end of NATO
Originally published in The Saturday Paper
"A rupture, not a transition": Carney's new order
"A rupture, not a transition": Carney's new order
"When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself."
Greenland, NATO and the ghost of Henry Kissinger
Greenland, NATO and the ghost of Henry Kissinger
The Greenland dispute threatens to revive a question NATO prefers to avoid.
Is the development of AI really a "race"?
Is the development of AI really a "race"?
It depends on whether you think the US and China are in an existential struggle.
War and peace in Asia’s new order: Australia’s duty
Speech
War and peace in Asia’s new order: Australia’s duty
Sam Roggeveen delivered the inaugural John Langmore Oration at the University of Melbourne on 10 December 2025.
A red banner year for the PLA
A red banner year for the PLA
For observers of the Chinese military, 2025 has been a year like no other.
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