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.

Angela Merkel declares independence, sort of
Angela Merkel declares independence, sort of
Trump is clearly making things worse, but the fraying of the US-Germany partnership is a story as long as the post-Cold War era.
China's bid to join the global aviation elite faces huge challenges
China's bid to join the global aviation elite faces huge challenges
Although the experts who are downplaying the commercial significance of the C919 are not wrong, perhaps their frame of reference is too narrow.
100 days of Trump
100 days of Trump
To mark 100 days of the Trump presidency, we've updated our timeline of all Lowy Institute research papers, opinion pieces, media interviews and Interpreter posts.
China launches its second aircraft carrier
China launches its second aircraft carrier
China's carrier program is symbolic of the power shift in the Asia Pacific. Short of an economic or political crisis in China, this shift probably can't be stopped; it can only be…
North Korea: Talks will fail because we have nothing they want
North Korea: Talks will fail because we have nothing they want
Despite the excitement of the last few days, the fundamentals have not changed.
The Interpreter taking a break for Easter
The Interpreter taking a break for Easter
Posting will be slow until Tuesday, when normal service resumes!
Quick comment: Bobo Lo on China-Russia relations
Quick comment: Bobo Lo on China-Russia relations
This week the Lowy Institute launched its latest Penguin Special, 'A Wary Embrace'. The author, Dr Bobo Lo, sat down with me to talk about future China-Russia relations.
China's huge industrial ambitions
China's huge industrial ambitions
Even if the C919 is a flop on the foreign market, don't count on China to give up. There is already work being done on a China-Russia joint venture to build an even larger jet in…
China versus the US: Australia's increasingly hard choice
Commentary
China versus the US: Australia's increasingly hard choice
Originally published in CNN on 25 March 2017. Sam Roggeveen
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