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

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.

Donald Trump's Asian tour
Commentary
Donald Trump's Asian tour
Asian leaders will be watching Trump for reassurance that the US will be a democratic ally in the Indo-Pacific. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review (Photo:…
Canberra conversations, with Gareth Evans
Canberra conversations, with Gareth Evans
Meeting Nelson Mandela, a conversation with the Queen, and an unsparing assessment of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Book now for the Interpreter Trivia Challenge!
Book now for the Interpreter Trivia Challenge!
Ladies and gentlemen, the Interpreter World Politics Trivia Challenge is on again.
'Choosing Openness' misdiagnoses the problem
'Choosing Openness' misdiagnoses the problem
The crisis Andrew Leigh detects in Australia is not societal, it is almost purely political.
We briefly interrupt your service...
We briefly interrupt your service...
Next Monday is a public holiday in Australia, so posting will be light.
What the US doesn’t understand about China
What the US doesn’t understand about China
Could Japan, India and North Korea become buffer states between the US and China?
Weekend catch-up: Tall tales from the world of journalism, and much more
Weekend catch-up: Tall tales from the world of journalism, and much more
This week we continued our delightful new series on foreign correspondents to mark the imminent awarding of the annual Lowy Institute Media Award.
‘Suicide note’?: Turnbull’s North Korea rhetoric will no longer wash
‘Suicide note’?: Turnbull’s North Korea rhetoric will no longer wash
Turnbull's rhetoric fails to take into account the fact that North Korea now probably has an operational ICBM.
Canberra conversations, with Frances Adamson
Canberra conversations, with Frances Adamson
DFAT Secretary Frances Adamson discusses her life and career and the challenges facing her department and the nation.
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