The Chinese Communist Party is notorious for obscuring how it runs the government of the People’s Republic of China. Its defence budget is particularly murky, earning a measly 1.5 (on a 12-point scale) from Transparency …
Australia’s review of defence strategy and the capabilities that flow from it is almost complete. From the outside, the strategic assessment has to be that China’s power and military reach have grown faster than expected, …
In part 1, I suggested that a defence funding line based on 2% of GDP is likely to fall short of the fixed funding line presented in the 2016 defence white paper. If a future …
It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. This is particularly the case with the trajectory of GDP growth. That’s one of the problems with tying defence funding to a specific percentage of GDP, …
In response to Australia’s increasingly uncertain strategic outlook, there are now calls to boost defence spending well beyond the current target of 2% of GDP in what’s assumed to be a steadily growing economy. Taxpayer …