Australia’s 2026–27 budget commits the federal government to daily spending around A$181.9 million on defence. That headline sits on the cover of our 2026 The cost of Defence report, released today. The number is sobering. …
Articles by: "Marc Ablong"
About A$17.4 billion of the Australian government’s promised A$53 billion increase in headline defence spending over the next 10 years remains uncertain. Of the uplift promised by the National Defence Strategy (NDS) a month ago …
When Australians think about Taiwan, the focus is often narrow: a distant sovereignty dispute in the Taiwan Strait, or a potential flashpoint between China and the United States. This framing understates the scale of what …
The Iran War, more than four years of Russia’s war on Ukraine and tensions in the Indo-Pacific have prompted most democratic nations to reset defence strategies and budgets. The strategic rationale is just as relevant …
The current debate on Defence funding, sparked by our 29 May report The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence budget brief 2025–2026, and a subsequent US request for Australia to spend more, has swung between a …
Despite our famed resilience against natural disasters, Australia still struggles to take catastrophic risk seriously. In this volatile security environment, the divide between short-term comfort and meaningful long-term preparedness remains worryingly wide. We must confront …
Australia’s escalating geostrategic threats demand more than military might. They require a resilient, united and proactive civil defence framework. The Defence Strategic Review says, ‘Defence must be the force of last resort for domestic aid …
David Baverez is right: the world has left the comfortable ‘peace economy’ of 1989–2022 and has entered a ‘war economy’ defined by the supremacy of geopolitics over globalisation. In this economy, strategic resilience, not just …
In a fundamentally shifted strategic environment marked by heightened geopolitical competition and the real prospect of high-intensity conflict, Defence is no longer solely the responsibility of the Australian Defence Force. Australia must embrace a whole-of-nation …
The 2025 Helsinki Geoeconomics Week, held from 11 to 15 August, confirmed a sobering reality: economic power is now inextricably linked to national security and strategic competition. The shifting tectonic plates of geopolitics are grinding …
The current debate on Defence funding, sparked by our 29 May report The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence budget brief 2025–2026, and a subsequent US request for Australia to spend more, has swung between a …
The ASPI Defence Conference in June highlighted the critical importance of national preparedness and resilience to Australia’s national security. Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston, set the stage by emphasising a pivotal shift …