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.

China: Explaining that tweet
China: Explaining that tweet
Four possible reasons behind a Chinese official’s social media missive.
Trump or Biden, Australia is alone
Commentary
Trump or Biden, Australia is alone
America protected Europe through the Cold War with a credible nuclear deterrent. Indo-Pacific nations can expect no such pledge. Originally published in the Australian Financial…
Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order: Tracking a Decade of Policy Evolution
Interactives
Australia's Security and the Rules-Based Order: Tracking a Decade of Policy Evolution
In this feature, we identify ten recurring propositions about the rules-based order and show it's evolution through national debate and government policy. Explore how the rules…
North Korea’s new missile
North Korea’s new missile
If – big if – this missile is real, America cannot guarantee its homeland security in a war with North Korea.
Why the American public has tuned out of politics
Commentary
Why the American public has tuned out of politics
The American political class are fighting their private culture wars that have sidelined the concerns that ordinary citizens have. Originally published in the Australian Financial…
Regional security depends on making order from chaos
Commentary
Regional security depends on making order from chaos
Originally published in The Australian.
Canberra vs Beijing: Getting serious about costs
Canberra vs Beijing: Getting serious about costs
It is impossible to have a useful public debate about the value of sovereignty if we refuse to put a price on it.
Unspoken danger in buying more missiles to defend Australia
Commentary
Unspoken danger in buying more missiles to defend Australia
Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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