The case for civil defence

The escalating geostrategic threats to Australia demand more than military might in response and a resilient, united and proactive civil defence framework could help safeguard citizens and build national resilience.

The Australian case for US power

As criticism of the United States grows louder in Australian circles, many are quick to declare the end of American leadership without considering what comes next.

Red lines in the grey zone

Constant grey-zone aggression by China and Russia has allowed them to further their strategic aims in the Asia-Pacific and eastern Europe with little consequence and it’s time for the West to draw clear lines to deter further transgressions.

Defending the nation

In an age of heightened geopolitical competition and the real prospect of high-intensity conflict, Australia must embrace a whole-of-nation approach to national defence.

Industrial mobilisation

Industrial mobilisation is the ultimate test of national resilience. It is a recognition that the sinews of a nation’s economy are, in extremis, the lifeline of its armed forces. We cannot afford to wait for the conflict to begin before we start priming the pump.

The counter-hybrid playbook

The lesson for the Indo-Pacific from Europe’s increasing efforts to counter Russian hybrid-warfare incursions is clear: investments in defence and resilience matter, but countering hybrid threats also requires unity, coordination and resolve to defeat authoritarian aggression.

Muscle over money

Calculating defence spending as a percentage of GDP offers a simple and comparable measure of relative effort in peacetime but it’s a poor guide to whether the country can sustain and win a war.

Rethinking human security

What if the greatest threats to national security weren’t missiles or cyberattacks, but loneliness, misinformation and eroding trust?

Losing the quiet war

China’s greatest success in its decades-long quiet war is its systematic erosion of the ability of US allies and partners to defend themselves and its aim of ‘winning without fighting’ is now within sight.

Special forces

Observers and practitioners of intelligence and special operations would do well to study the activities of Israel’s clandestine services and elite military units since 7 October 2023. They demonstrate the potency of creative clandestine operations, strategic patience and operational aggression.

Through a glass, darkly

NATO forecaster Florence Gaub says that strategic foresight isn’t about guessing the future, it’s about equipping leaders to face it with agility, humility and imagination. The more you think about the future in a structured way, the more optimistic you become.

Eternal vigilance

Our open free society is vulnerable to exploitation by hostile, authoritarian foreign powers such as China, Russia and Iran, and security is required to preserve our freedoms, rather than constrain them.