Australia’s defence planning is outdated and lacks coherence, relying on old notions of defending the continent from conventional military attack and focussing overly on the nearby region, one of the nation’s top strategic thinkers says.
In a new paper that is likely to shake up military planners as the Defence Department prepares its latest White Paper, Alan Dupont of the Lowy Institute says Australia’s defence strategy needs to give far more attention to the use of space and cyberspace.
Professor Dupont – who originally was to work on the White Paper before a change of heart by the Abbott government – also warns of a “worrying superficiality” in Canberra’s understanding of how the US is stepping back from global security and what that means for Australia.