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.

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
Who makes the rules? A dialogue on law and power in Asia's new order
Who makes the rules? A dialogue on law and power in Asia's new order
A lightly edited transcript of an email exchange between Professor Hugh White, author of 'The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power', and Lowy Institute Senior Fellow Sam…
North Korea’s long-range missiles spell trouble for Australia
North Korea’s long-range missiles spell trouble for Australia
What could Australia could possibly do to make itself quite so indispensable that Washington would be prepared to defend Australia at the possible risk of losing a major American…
Trump and America the ordinary
Commentary
Trump and America the ordinary
Donald Trump has no time for talk of the 'indispensable power'. That might be safer than a US which talks big but doesn't back it up, writes Sam Roggeveen for the Australian…
Welcome to the post-American era
Welcome to the post-American era
America is transitioning from an indispensable nation, the guarantor of the global rules-based order, to a normal great power.
One big question the White Paper cannot ignore
One big question the White Paper cannot ignore
Managing the tension between the interests of our major strategic partner - the US - and our primary economic partner - China - has to be at the very heart of Australian foreign…
Trump critics need to be careful what they cheer for
Trump critics need to be careful what they cheer for
Many journalists and commentators have done themselves a lot of harm, and Trump a lot of favours, by the lack of judgment they have shown in their criticisms.
Why the Turnbull and Trump phone call is no passing spat
Commentary
Why the Turnbull and Trump phone call is no passing spat
Yes, it was just a phone call, and the storm will pass. But in the background, history is moving against the US-Australia alliance, writes Sam Roggeveen in the Australian…
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