Sam Roggeveen

Director, International Security Program
Areas of expertise

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

Sam Roggeveen
Biography
Publications
News and media

Sam Roggeveen is 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 as an analyst in the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

Sam has a long-standing 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 digital 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.

Trump–Kim summit: negotiating weakness
Trump–Kim summit: negotiating weakness
The real agenda in US–North Korea talks may be economic and political, rather than about arms.
Three reasons why the Singapore summit had to happen
Commentary
Three reasons why the Singapore summit had to happen
Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald.Sam Roggeveen
Singapore summit: the case for guarded optimism
Singapore summit: the case for guarded optimism
The US and North Korea are far apart, but look beneath the surface and there is a chance for agreement.
Why China isn’t planning to storm Taiwan’s beaches
Why China isn’t planning to storm Taiwan’s beaches
China’s navy has grown dramatically, but not its amphibious forces.
China’s first homebuilt carrier sails: so what?
China’s first homebuilt carrier sails: so what?
Soon, China will be the only country other than the US to operate more than one large aircraft carrier.
China is catching up to the US, except on this key measure
China is catching up to the US, except on this key measure
The Lowy Institute Power Index shows that China remains a lonely superpower. Does that matter?
The other North Korea question: How important is the Korean Peninsula to the US?
Commentary
The other North Korea question: How important is the Korean Peninsula to the US?
Historians may come to see North Korea’s nuclear-armed ballistic missiles as the trigger that unravels America’s strategic leadership of Asia. Originally published in the…
Trump, Kim, and the deal of the century
Trump, Kim, and the deal of the century
Trump ought to offer Kim a grand bargain: give up your ICBM program, and we will withdraw our troops from South Korea.
Joyce and the leadership churn: better get used to it
Joyce and the leadership churn: better get used to it
This may be the new normal for Australia: more frequent leadership changes, minority governments, and shorter incumbencies in government.
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