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
China, a wounded tiger, could lash out
The Chinese Communist Party’s power has long rested on four pillars: economic growth, nationalism, repression and communist ideology. The last of these withered away almost entirely as China liberalized its economy, with slogans such as “Long live the invincible Marxism-Leninism theory” replaced by “To get rich is glorious.” Now the first pillar is unstable too. Read more
The Sleeper Issue of 2016 Is China
As the long march to the presidential nomination begins, most of the likely Republican contenders are talking tough on foreign policy and criticizing the Obama administration for its evident failings in handling Russia, Iran, Syria, and the Islamic State and other Islamist extremists. Read more
A U.S. ‘Solarium Project’ for China
The Obama administration is evidently divided over how to respond to provocative Chinese actions in cyberspace and the South China Sea. Intelligence community leaders warn that unless the U.S. retaliates, it will continue to face damaging computer network attacks of the sort China appears to have carried out against the Office of Personnel Management. Yet the administration has refused even to identify China as the culprit in the theft of over 20 million sensitive personal files. 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Australia’s defence strategy outdated, with major defects: Lowy Institute expert
Australia’s defence planning is outdated and lacks coherence, relying on old notions of defending the continent from conventional military attack and focussing overly on the nearby region, one of the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
Asia emerges as center of gravity in the international system
As Henry Kissinger and others have observed, Asia is emerging as the center of gravity in the international system. The rapid economic growth that began with Japan during the 1960s spread to South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore in the 1970s; China in the 1980s; and India in the 1990s. As has become indisputable, throughout history, prosperity brings power in its train. Read more