Australian defence and deterrence

Robbin Laird’s “Australian Defence and Deterrence: A 2024 Update” serves as a handy summation of the Defence challenges faced by Australia in a more contested world.

People have the power

Despite the importance of new technology, people remain at the heart of Australia’s armed forces.

Operation Malabar

The recent iteration of the Malabar military exercises is an illustration of the growing military interoperability, mutual trust, and coordinated response of the Quad countries. More are needed to maintain stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, threatened increasingly by China’s military assertiveness.

Lessons in leadership

Former Defence Minister Kevin Andrews recalls the worrying security briefings which stiffened Australia’s resolve to acknowledge and face China’s expansionist agenda.

Defending Australia requires protecting the Pacific

Australia should provide a treaty-level security guarantee to defend Pacific islands from external aggression in return for the Australian Defence Force becoming the de facto defence force of those countries, allowing their citizens would be able to join the ADF.

Strike back

Defence Minister Richard Marles called for the Australian Defence Force to be capable of ‘impactful projection’ and a diversity of strike missiles are being acquired to achieve it.

Improving US-Australian defence cooperation

The US–Australia defence relationship, and the alliance more broadly, has never been closer, as highlighted by the AUKUS partnership, but changing strategic circumstances make it imperative that the two partners continue to improve their mutual understanding of each other, build greater resilience and leverage each other’s strengths.

Parliamentary scrutiny and national defence

The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is holding its first public hearing in its inquiry into the 2021–22 Defence report and it has many issues to discuss.

The place for space in the Defence Review

Australia’s 2023 Defence Strategic Review has moved space up the agenda as a key element of integrated military capability.

Post war lessons for a prewar world

The current defence capability review being undertaken by Stephen Smith and Angus Houston could be informed by a similar exercise at the end of World War Two.

Smith and Houston, we have a problem

The two independent leads of Australia’s defence strategic review, Stephen Smith and Angus Houston, have got their work cut out for them.

Impactful projection

Larger stocks of long-range weapons will be needed to ensure Australia can deter aggressors in the future.