Australian policy on Fiji is shifting to appeasement in ways that will gladden the military regime and sadden Fijians. What might be called the Bainimarama appeasement lobby—broadly speaking a group of academics and journalists who …
Earlier posts (here, here and here) have looked at force structure from an Australian perspective, but in reality the American alliance dominates all our defence discussions. So our thinking about future force structure alternatives and …
As a long time follower (and often critic) of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, I sat down to watch last night’s Four Corners episode with great interest. Now I want my 7.1 cents back. …
Last month Cyclone Evan pummelled Fiji and Samoa, leaving a trail of destruction. This month in the remote Santa Cruz Islands province of the Solomon Islands ten people died in a tsunami triggered by a …
Since at least 1950 Australia’s defence policy has been predicated on US military strength. It behoves us, therefore, to keep a close eye on US defence policy. In one sense, recent developments are encouraging. The …
There’s been a lot of discussion about escalating tension between China and Japan. Over at East Asia Forum, Sourabh Gupta looks at what an agreement over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands might look like. On the same …
The Australian relationship with New Zealand is kindred, yet Kiwi. The kindred yet Kiwi line expresses the reality that the kiss and the kick are the two twinned elements of a deeply intertwined history. These …
Marcus Fielding’s response to my force structure post raises several interesting points, in particular, that ‘…it’s entirely appropriate for Australia to restructure to be able to lead and provide force-level support to regional coalitions.’ In …
Brendan Taylor provides an eloquent critique of Ben Scheer’s recent post, but I don’t think I can agree with him. In his desire to ‘soften’ his former colleague’s line on China’s recent actions in the …
I was invited this week to be part of a panel discussion at the Australian Defence Magazine 2013 Congress. Part of the brief was to address a series of questions relating to the role of …
Recent incidents between Chinese and Japanese warships and aircraft in the East China Sea have renewed interest in confidence-building measures (CBMs) to prevent potential conflict. The situation is getting serious up there: Japan alleges that a Chinese frigate locked its fire-control …
Peter Layton’s recent post raises some important questions about force structure but ultimately comes up with an overly simplified characterisation of the alternatives. Peter describes the two ends of the force structure continuum in overly …
Rob Ayson’s dismay about the lacklustre summit of Australian and New Zealand Prime Minister’s last weekend is easily understandable. It produced so little of substance that one was left asking: why bother? What we got …
Earlier today, I took up an invitation to speak at the annual Australian Defence Magazine Congress. My task was to provide an update on the defence budget and make predictions about where it’s headed. The …
Andrew Davies makes some points about maritime operations which need teasing out. The first is in relation to maritime trade and the ability to protect it. It seems to me that in making the declaration …
For Australia, force structure decisions don’t solely revolve around national considerations. The alliance with America has a major influence. In thinking about force structures we have two choices at either end of a continuum: either …
Ben Schreer takes a hard-nosed approach to his analysis of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute in his recent post, but I don’t think I can agree with him. First and foremost, despite his criticism of China …
Welcome back for our pick of the defence and security world’s articles over the past week and listing of interesting events. Navy and fleet sizes The US Navy has reduced its fleet requirement from 313 …
Imagine a parallel universe where the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers conclude their annual meeting by announcing that they’d get together the next time there was a large enough issue to require their mutual …
In his recent post, Justin Jones did a commendable job of providing the justification for including submarines in a force structure. Jim Molan was right when he said that too much of the discussion of …