Articles by: "Nic Stuart"
Different perspectives

In his recent ASPI paper Peter Leahy provides a bracing warning—that we may be fighting radical Islam for 100 years. Lieutenant General Leahy points out not only the global nature of this threat, but also …

The Long War—on the ground

 ‘Big History’ is all the go at the moment. This is a relatively new way of attempting to explain what’s occurring today by searching for deeper trends that are shaping events. Its popularity’s understandable—particularly when …

Where do Australian interests stop?

As dawn broke on 1 January 1901, the splendidly-attired band of the Royal New South Wales Lancers was busy polishing its kit (including the new kettle-drums to be carried on a beautiful white Clydesdale draft-horse). …

On the future of air power

As Herman Göring might have said, ‘when I hear the name Carl von Clausewitz, I reach for my gun’. (He actually made the comment about the word ‘culture’.) Particularly when the reference occurs early on …

Close ties?

Niels Marquardt is quite correct to stress the warm and close relationship that exists between Australia and the US. We have no closer relationship. It stretches across all aspects of our engagement with the world. …

Yet more on ‘strategy’

As readers of this post will undoubtedly recall from schooldays spent declining Greek nouns, the word strategos means ‘general’; hence our word, ‘strategy’, or the ‘art of generalship’. Of course leadership in war was never …

Amphibious capability: the medium and the message

I’m a journalist. This means, self-evidently, that I bring precious little expertise to any discussion of strategic policy. Apart from, perhaps, some experience (I’m not quite as young as I look) and an interest in …

Nuclear deterrence, what is it good for?

Prof Paul Dibb’s revisiting of exactly how close we came to nuclear war in 1983 reminded me of my own small role in propelling the world towards nuclear Armageddon at that time. Armed with the …

Happy Birthday Navy!

Well, she certainly doesn’t look a hundred. Indeed, it’s rather more as if the Navy’s developed something of the sophisticated allure of an older woman; after all, she was painting her ships 50 shades of …

Policy, what policy?

An ear-piercing alarm should ring the moment a politician pretends national security is too important for party politicking. You know they’re lying. That’s because within seconds they’ll set about violating their own injunction. Thin, grasping, …