Articles by: "Peter Layton"
Heterogeneous air power is here

Current conflicts have overturned how air power is applied. Air forces should no longer be built solely around crewed aircraft. A different balance is required. The use of drones in very large numbers in the …

Ensuring Australia’s defence through complex interdependence

Australia’s defence thinking is based on outdated grand strategies. Adopting a complex interdependence grand strategy could create robust connections with many countries, enhancing national resilience to strategic, economic, technological and societal shocks. Specifically, Defence would …

Artificial intelligence at war

There’s a global arms race under way to work out how best to use artificial intelligence for military purposes. The Gaza and Ukraine wars are now accelerating this. These conflicts might inform Australia and others …

Designing an Australian grand strategy for China

For Australia, China looms large, but the reverse is not necessarily true. The Chinese Communist Party has many pressing issues domestically in managing 1.3 billion people and the world’s second largest economy, and internationally with …

Social mobilisation in a contested environment

As geostrategic circumstances darken, there’s new interest in military mobilisation. For Australia, that involves moving the Australian Defence Force beyond its normal peacetime rate of effort. It can be an all-of-nation mobilisation for the ‘big’ …