DWP 2016: Australia in the South Pacific

Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper states that it’s second Strategic Defence Interest is ‘a secure nearer region, encompassing maritime Southeast Asia and the South Pacific’ (3:68), which includes Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Pacific …

Seven Defence White Papers by the numbers (1)

A Defence White Paper is analysis framed by numbers. More than dollars and equipment, the numbers offer meanings and mental maps. Seek the topography from the typography. The crudest measure is to rank countries by …

ASPI suggests

While the memory of Super Tuesday is bound to fade as the campaigns roll on across the US, it’s providing ample fodder for the number crunchers, campaign strategists, political tragics and the comments section commentariat. The …

DWP 2016: the future of C4ISR

Broader investment in C4ISR is becoming increasingly critical in the face of evolving threats and changes in technology according to the 2016 Defence White Paper. The Government plans to invest around $22 billion (out-turned prices) or …

DWP 2016: China, Australia and the US rebalance?

Australia enters China’s strategic landscape because of its role as a close military ally of the US. It’s seen by many inside China as the ‘southern anchor’ of America’s alliance system in the Asia–Pacific region. …

A Super Tuesday for Hillary and The Donald

The Super Tuesday results suggest that the Democratic Party coronation of Hillary Clinton has resumed and that the insurrection that propelled Donald Trump into the Republican Party lead continues unabated. Neither primary nomination contest is …

New subs—not so fast

Four years ago we produced a paper on the production timeline for the future submarine, and what that meant for the longevity of the Collins fleet. Our ‘Mind the Gap’ paper was based on information …

To Mach 5 and beyond: the age of high speed warfare

Of all the potentially transformational military technologies that will appear over the next 10 years, hypersonic strike weapons, and ultimately, hypersonic platforms, could radically transform future military operations as well as open up the prospect …

DWP 2016 and extended nuclear deterrence

Back in 2013, Ashley Tellis nicely captured some of the core truths about Australia and its relationship to nuclear weapons: ‘Currently, the sole example of an Asian state possessing latent nuclear capabilities, but with an …

DWP 2016: a throwback to a harder era

The 2016 defence white paper is a first-class statement on Australia’s strategic situation. It proffers a balanced view of the significance of Australia’s alliances and ably inserts their defence in the context of broader regional …

SEA1000: the importance of dived endurance (part 1)

There’s one number that every conventional submarine commanding officer calculates day and night: the percentage of the Main Storage Battery (MSB) that remains. Let me bring a submarine operator’s perspective to the points made recently …

Cyber wrap

Last Thursday’s release of the Defence White Paper heralded more money and manpower for cyber security in Defence. Head of ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre, Tobias Feakin, analysed the cyber elements of the White Paper …

The next Battle of the Beams

The Battle of the Beams was a period during World War II concerning German attempts to harness radio navigation for night bombing in the UK and the resulting British countermeasures. The British eventually managed to …

DWP 2016: the return of geography

Australia’s 2016 Defence White Paper marks the return of geography to defence planning. Not that it had ever entirely disappeared, although Defence Minister Robert Hill at times tried his best to ridicule the importance of …