Articles by: "Andrew Davies"
Thinking about the future

The topic I was given at the recent Submarine Institute of Australia conference was ‘The Strategic Environment in the period 2020-2050’. That gave me a chance to reprise in part a lecture I gave in …

Collins and the afterlife

I was pleased to be invited to the Submarine Institute of Australia biennial conference last week, which doubled as a celebration of the centenary of Australian submarines. Australia’s first boats, the AE1 and AE2, were …

South Australian defence industry summit

I was pleased to be invited to speak at the South Australian Government’s Defence Industry Policy Summit (PDF) earlier this week. I was invited in my role as a member of the Defence White Paper Expert …

Australia’s latest commitment

Defence analysis is my core business, so I thought I’d share my views about Australia’s decision about going to war again in the Middle East. As I’ll argue below, I think we’re doing the right …

Coles up close

As members of the Defence Minister’s White Paper Expert Panel, Mike Kalms and I have been asked to help prepare the next Defence Industry Policy Statement (DIPS). An important part of that process has been …

Getting the submarine we want

It’s not hard to make sense of reports that a Japanese submarine is now in the forefront of the government’s mind as it turns its attention to replacing the Collins class. After all, looking around …

National security and civil liberties

It’s always good to see debate about civil liberties and security legislation here on The Strategist. With a number of changes to security legislation in the wind, it was appropriate that my colleagues Toby Feakin …

Graph of the week: learning about learning

An important concept in understanding production efficiency of complex items is the notion of a learning curve. The term has passed into common usage, with ‘steep learning curve’ being synonymous with ‘really hard to master’ …