Articles by: "Hugh White"
DWP 2016 and self-reliance

There’s little that’s new in our new White Paper, but there’s one bold innovation which has so far received less attention that it deserves. The Turnbull Government has substantially downgraded, if not quite completely abandoned, …

Surface warships and the quest for sea control

As always, one admires James Goldrick’s spirited defence of the importance of sea control to Australia’s defence strategy, and of the priority for major warships in our force structure. He suspects sceptics like me of …

ANZUS in the Asian Century

The ANZUS study released this week by SDSC in conjunction with CSIS (PDF) says a lot of interesting things about the US alliance, but it seems to evade the hard issue at the heart of …

White Paper puzzles

It seems the 2015 Defence White Paper is only a couple of months away, so the big decisions about capability plans and funding should by now have been nailed down, and the White Paper team …

The strategic risks of Option J

In their paper supporting Option J, Andrew Davies and Benjamin Schreer don’t just rebut some of the strategic arguments raised against it, but also provide their own argument on strategic grounds in its favour. Their …

Can the status quo last in Asia?

Well, this has been an interesting exchange and I thank Peter Jennings for launching it, the team on The Strategist for hosting it, and distinguished colleagues for taking the time to contribute. The exchange has …

Reader response: Wrong turn on the White road

Peter’s sprightly post leaves no room for doubt: he doesn’t buy the argument that he thinks I’m making about how we should respond to China’s rise. I’m glad to hear that because I don’t buy …

Why LHDs and AWDs are a bad investment

Thomas Lonergan makes an excellent case for the importance of amphibious capability in the ADF. But he doesn’t make a case for the investments now being made in developing that capability. He says the ADF’s …

The Anglosphere and the China Choice

Like many of our readers, I’ve been following the recent discussion of the nature of the Anglosphere with interest. It’s been a lively exchange—and a sometimes wry one—and it sheds some light on aspects of our …