It’s been disappointing, and a little depressing, to see how parochial and partisan the issue of climate change has become in recent years in Australia, to the detriment of good policy and intelligent national debate. Read more
Is “Regular Warfare” Dead?
Hugh White’s considered response to the questions I posed in our recent exchange in the Lowy Interpreter on the fundamentals of Australian defense strategy prods me to elaborate on my previous arguments as well as to make some counterpoints. Read more
Why Australia needs full-spectrum defence
Given he was the principal author of the 2000 Defence White Paper, it is reassuring to know that Hugh White agrees with me that Australian strategic policy needs a rethink, even if he is not persuaded by all of my prescriptions. So, in the spirit of a full and frank debate about what needs to be done, let me respond to Hugh’s observations and counterpoints to my Lowy Analysis paper, Full-Spectrum Defence: Re-thinking the Fundamentals of Australian Defence Strategy. Read more
Australia’s defence strategy outdated, with major defects: Lowy Institute expert
Australia’s defence planning is outdated and lacks coherence, relying on old notions of defending the continent from conventional military attack and focussing overly on the nearby region, one of the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. Read more
Australia’s importance as US ally increasing, says professor
United States security strategy is changing and how its allies deal with this change raises multiple issues Australia must now consider.
At the recent KPMG/AFR defence and national security roundtable, Alan Dupont, professor of international security at the University of New South Wales, strongly defined the new security challenge for Australia and the US. Read more
Australia needs ‘cyber weapons’, report argues
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) needs to develop a full-spectrum defence strategy which includes cyber weapons according to a new report by Professor Alan Dupont.
Full Spectrum Defence: Re-thinking the fundamentals of Australian defence strategy, published by the Lowy Institute, notes that the ADF has a maritime, land and aerial approach to defence. Read more
Rise of China – Should Australia Be Nervous?
Hugh White, Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University, and Alan Dupont, Professor of International Security at the University of New South Wales discuss, China’s strategy in the South China Sea. Read more
Interview on 2GB about the Islamic terror threat
Alan talks with Alan Jones at 2GB about the international relations expert about the Islamic terror threat.
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East Asia’s Maritime Disputes: Fishing in Troubled Waters
Few doubt that China’s rise is this era’s principal driver of strategic change, just as the United States’ equally influential ascendancy shaped the last. But earlier optimism that the Middle Kingdom’s re-emergence as a major power would be largely benign is fading as evidence mounts that Beijing is determined to press its territorial and resource claims in the vitally important seas of the Western Pacific. In barely the blink of a geopolitical eye, China’s once lauded charm offensive has given way to exactly the kind of coercive behavior its critics have long predicted. In a 3,000-mile maritime arc running from the East China Sea to the southern reaches of the South China Sea, Beijing is at loggerheads with many of its neighbors, including erstwhile friends, over several linked territorial and resource disputes. If not wisely managed, these disputes could bring East Asia’s long peace to a premature and bloody end.
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