news Pages

Balloons vs. satellites: Popping some misconceptions about capability and legality ... more ...

China Gears Up To Shoot Down US Drones ... more ...

America and China: Whose timeline is it anyway? ... more ...

Kamikazes: The Legacy Of Soviet Naval Aviation ... more ...

China’s Balloon May Have Taught Pentagon More Than Beijing Learned From It ... more ...

Rules Of Engagement And Undersea Incursions: Reacting To Foreign Submarines In Territorial Waters ... more ...

Britain remains a major military power — but for how long? ... more ...

The Coming Revolution in Intelligence Affairs ... more ...

Learning the lessons of the past, key to future success ... more ...

The Case For Caution On Crimea ... more ...

The Cod Wars and Lessons for Maritime Counterinsurgency ... more ...

FDR & His Mighty Navy ... more ...

Australia’s return to must-win wars ... more ...

Report from 1945 holds lessons for defence strategic review team ... more ...

Japan identifies next-gen military wish list to counter China ... more ...

Confronting The Iraq War: Melvyn Leffler, George Bush And The Problem Of Trusting Your Sources ... more ...

CSIS Wargame: China’s Invasion Of Taiwan In 2026 ... more ...

Back to the Future: Resurrecting ‘Air/Sea Battle’ in the Pacific ... more ...

Japan’s Strategic Shift Is Significant, But Implementation Hurdles Await ... more ...

Setting the scene for building an Australian strategic umbrella ... more ...

Spread Out and Networked: How the US Navy Plans to Fight and Win Future Wars ... more ...

Churchill Dies at 90 At Home in London_NY Times Obituary ... more ...

Is the Defence Strategic Review a plot to kill Australian industry? ... more ...

Tankers For The Pacific Fight: A Crisis In Capability ... more ...

Is China About To Destroy Encryption As We Know It? Maybe ... more ...

The Siren Song: Technology, JADC2, and the Future of War ... more ...

Bringing autonomy to hydrography to map the undersea world for the US Navy ... more ...

Industry critical to allied naval interchangeability ... more ...

A Crucial Moment for Ukraine ... more ...

General purpose frigates as a means of beefing up Australia’s maritime capabilities ... more ...

Bigger Fleets Win ... more ...

Using The Enemy To Train The Troops—Beijing’s New Approach To Prepare Its Navy For War ... more ...

Why Can’t America Accept An Imperfect World? ... more ...

Budget blowout concerns for key Indian Ocean Defence base ... more ...

Dumb Ways to Buy: Defence “shambles” unveiled ... more ...

Renewed US calls for ‘whole-of-nation’ approach to national security ... more ...

It is never too early to start planning for our next destroyers ... more ...

US Spies Lag Rivals in Seizing on Data Hiding in Plain Sight ... more ...

How Biden’s microchip ban is curbing China’s AI weapons efforts ... more ...

Japan’s Shift To War Footing ... more ...

The PLA’s People Problem ... more ...

Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Submarines Attack? ... more ...

Peak China? ... more ...

Japan and U.K. sign landmark defense cooperation treaty ... more ...

The Royal Navy’s Astute class submarines: Part 1 – development and delivery ... more ...

Building a better bomber: How the stealthy B-21 subverted bureaucracy ... more ...

The Roots of Washington’s Addiction to Military Force ... more ...

Think tank simulation predicts ‘heavy’ losses, if China invades Taiwan ... more ...

How the surface fleet can meet the Chinese challenge ... more ...

Europeans wade into fighting seabed threats with drones and sensors ... more ...

US Navy considers Cold War-era squadrons to boost readiness ... more ...

Can we have ‘impactful projection’ without ‘impactful presence’? ... more ...

Australian Self-Reliance: The Task for Our Defence Review ... more ...

Bomber’s defence ... more ...

Why Midshipmen Must Study History ... more ...

U.S. Building Advanced Over-The-Horizon Radar On Palau ... more ...

Russia’s Zircon Hypersonic Missiles Now At Sea ... more ...

Australia buys 20 ‘god of war’ missile launchers ... more ...

How the New Zealand Navy plans to fix its sailor and ship shortfalls ... more ...

Highlighting 150 years of USN surface weapons ... more ...

American Defense Priorities After Ukraine ... more ...

Sharpening Surface Force Lethality: The Latest In Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training ... more ...

Japan Steps Up ... more ...

Getting Back On Top: How to Rebuild the US Navy ... more ...

USN rolls out new incentives for sailors who refer new recruits ... more ...

Indo-Pacific turmoil ahead as Aussies and allies shift their strategies, and China wobbles: 2023 Preview ... more ...

How Ukraine war shook and shaped Asia in 2022 ... more ...

Russia’s Biggest Blunders Throughout Putin’s War in Ukraine ... more ...

China May Have Just Taken the Lead in the Quantum Computing Race ... more ...

Aerial Minefields Can Put the ‘Miss’ in Missiles ... more ...

China’s ‘Particle Beam Cannon’ Is a Nuclear-Power Breakthrough ... more ...

What Prompted Japan to Adopt Its ‘Earth-Shattering’ Military Build-up Plan? ... more ...

The continuing search for balance in Australia’s Indo-Pacific policy ... more ...

AUSMIN 2022 - a major strategic reset ... more ...

Admiral King and the US Naval High Command in WW2 ... more ...

What Does Australia’s Strategic Review Hold For The RAN? ... more ...

The Dawn of Drone Diplomacy ... more ...

Japan’s Weapons Buildup to Bolster U.S. Efforts to Counter China ... more ...

Deterrence And Commitment Across The Taiwan Strait: Lessons From Truman, Eisenhower, And Kennedy ... more ...

Iran asking Russia to sell military ships, help build new designs: Israeli sources ... more ...

Vietnam ‘Christmas bombings’ 50 years on ... more ...

‘Breakthrough’ Japan strategy eyes China threat, drives huge defense changes ... more ...

US Diego Garcia Base In Balance ... more ...

Russia’s Killer Drones ... more ...

Big Tech Goes to War ... more ...

How to avoid another world war ... more ...

Sharper choices: How Australia can make better national security decisions ... more ...

Back to the Future: Blended Wing Gliders Could Redefine Undersea Warfare ... more ...

Australia Inks New Security Deal With Vanuatu ... more ...

Australia’s Testbed For Its Upcoming ‘Ghost Shark’ Unmanned Combat Submarines ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Timothy R. Heath. 14 December, 2022. Is China preparing to invade Taiwan within the next two decades? In the past year, fears that war could break out in the Taiwan Strait have grown palpable, owing in large part to the ... more ...

_In an excerpt from a 1969 Proceedings article, a celebrated naval historian explores the command styles of the admirals who led the U.S. Pacific armada during the final offensives against Japan. _ USNI. Proceedings. E. B. Potter. April 2016. ... more ...

It’s a big challenge to manage the ambition for nuclear-powered subs and still juggle other crucial defence decisions. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Justin Burk. 8 December 2022. Despite the customary expressions of friendship, warmth, and praise for ... more ...

There are signs that the bilateral US-Philippine military relationship may be rejuvenated following years of stagnation, after a series of high-level meetings between American and Filipino representatives. Defence Connect. 12 December 2022. The relationship soured over recent years, prompting concerns in the West ... more ...

Just last month, Australian researchers made a global breakthrough in portable quantum cryptography. Read the first-hand account from the NSW Defence Innovation Network’s Lincoln Parker. Defence Connect. 9 December 2022. In September of 2017, the Chinese Academy of Sciences prepared and ... more ...

Australia has just embarked on a parliamentary inquiry into how it makes choices about when and why it goes to war. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Josh Wilson. 8 December 2022. There ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Steven Feldstein. 7 December, 2022 Journalists have described the invasion of Ukraine as the world’s “first TikTok war,” the most “internet-accessible war in history,” and history’s “most viral” social media war. But this kind of hype tells us only so ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Brendan Nicholson. 7 Dec 2022. Canberra and Washington have committed to improving logistics at Australian airfields, including at bases in the country’s north, to support increased rotations of US bombers and fighter aircraft. Japan will also be invited to play an ... more ...

Defence News. Rep. Ken Calvert. 6 December 2022. A year before the U.S. entered World War ... more ...

War On The Rocks. John Christianson. 5 December, 2022. Starlink has proved critical for combat operations in Ukraine, and the system appears nimble enough to withstand sophisticated Russian electromagnetic attack. The U.S. military once dominated this domain, but due to lack of investment and ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 4 December 2022. The shape of the plan by which Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement is now in ... more ...

As Washington contemplates the next steps in the shadow of Putin’s brinksmanship, leaders should be clearer about what’s at stake for them. Cato Institute. Patrick Porter and Joshua Shifrinson. November 2022. This article appeared in InkStick on November 15, 2022. Russia’s nuclear saber‐​rattling ... more ...

The Hill. Michael O’HANLON. 1 December 2022. Is the so-called AUKUS arrangement between close allies Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States losing its ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Aaron Delano-Johnson & Chris Bernotavicius. 2 December, 2022 The Soviet fishing fleet was once a near-permanent fixture on America’s Pacific coast, hauling in an estimated 1.2 million tons of fish until the two sides reached an agreement to limit the ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Olli Pekka Suorsa & Brendon J. Cannon, 30 November 2022. The Turkish TB2, the “Toyota Corolla of drones,” is cheap and reliable — but not fast or powerful. Despite its slow-speed and visibility to ground-based radar, Turkey’s armed drones have ... more ...

Naval port visits send important signals and contribute to the thriving bilateral relationship. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Justin Burke. 30 November 2022. ... more ...

CIMSEC. Vice Admiral Roy Kitchener. 29 November 2022. ... more ...

War On The Rocks. RFM Williams. 25 November 2022 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev failed to reach an agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons while in power, but both men agreed in 1985 “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never ... more ...

AUKUS is about submarines, not bombers The Hill. Andrew I. Park and Steven Wills. 27November 2022 ... more ...

CIMSEC. Olga R. Chiriac. 28 November 2022 On July 31, 2022, Russian Navy Day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of the new Maritime Doctrine of the Russian Federation in a speech given during a parade at the Kronstadt naval base. To be ... more ...

Destruction of Nord Stream pipelines alarmed security forces across EU; ‘a wake-up call’ WSJ. Margherita Stancati, Kim Mackrael and Georgi Kantchev. 25 November 2022 The Italian navy mine hunter ... more ...

Preparing for a competitive peace with China is more nuanced and complicated than preparing for conflict, argues the Center for Maritime Strategy’s Benjamin Mainardi. Defence Indo Pacific. Benjamin Mainardi. 23 November, 2022 ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 18 Nov 2022. A term that was unknown only a week or so ago has entered the lexicon of Australian strategic thought: ‘impactful projection’. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles first used it in an armchair ... more ...

ASEAN-led defense talks reaffirm norms for South China Sea ... more ...

What Washington Can Learn From Its Asian Allies Foreign Affairs. Michael J. Green. November/December 2022. For four years, as an increasingly belligerent China breathed ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Nguyen The Phuong. 16 Nov 2022. The recent debate on The Strategist about whether Vietnam should have a maritime or continental geostrategic orientation has reinvigorated the long-term and historical interaction between the two strategic cultures. It also shows that it’s not ... more ...

The sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva is one of the greatest naval victories in decades, and will deserve its place in history. But the attack on Sevastopol, with maritime drones, can be seen as a bigger deal in the long term. It had a dramatic affect on the Russian ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Mackenzie Eaglen. 17 November 2022. The military brass has been sounding the alarm about the imminence of a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan. But this urgency is not reflected in the Pentagon’s budget. Last month, the Chief of Naval Operations, ... more ...

CIMSEC. CDR Gregory A. Engel. 17 November 2022. _The following republication is adapted from a chapter from The Politics of Naval Innovation, a paper sponsored by the Office of Net Assessment and conducted by the Strategic Research Department of the U.S. Naval War College’s Center for Naval Warfare Studies. _ ... more ...

Xi Jinping’s path to greater power goes through Taiwan ... more ...

Support for the AUKUS security partnership “dramatically outweighs criticism, with about half of US and Australian respondents and 28 per cent of Japanese respondents in favour of Australia having nuclear-powered submarines while only 18-19 per cent of respondents in the three countries were against it.” Breaking Defense. Colin Clark. 14 ... more ...

Breaking Defence. Colin Clark. 14 November, 2022 CANBERRA — One of the giants of Australian politics and defense is calling for a “massive” increase in defense spending ... more ...

War is now more likely than at any point in the past 80 years, but our next conflict won’t involve a few thousand troops on far away shores. It will occur on our doorstep, impacting the entire nation. The Australian. Jim Molan. 15 November 2022 ... more ...

USNI Proceedings. Captain Scott Mobley, U.S. Navy (Retired). November 2022. To be most effective, the U.S. Navy’s culture must equally leverage three pillars: ... more ...

Xi’s Reach Exceeds His Military’s Grasp Foreign Affairs. Bonny Lin and Joel Wuthnow. 10 November, 2022 In late October, Chinese leader Xi Jinping kicked off the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress—a twice-a-decade, agenda-setting conclave ... more ...

Defence is like a giant waterfall. Inside, it seems to be constantly gushing with change. Walk 10m away and it looks exactly the same as it did five days ago, five years ago, 50 years ago. — Greg Sheridan, ‘Open Letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard ... more ...

Insider. Mattathias Schwartz. 12 November 2022. On Monday, in Bali, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will have their first-ever presidential sit-down. Taiwan will figure prominently on their agenda. “Taiwan is going to be one of the central issues,” Evan ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Alessio Patalano. 10 Nov 2022. Last week the naval war in Ukraine came back to international attention. In a theatre that first defined by the Russian assault against Snake Island in the early stages of the invasion and then by Ukraine’s ... more ...

China’s Xi Jinping Takes Politburo on Communist Road Trip Mao Zedong is the CCP’s great embarrassment, from which China cannot escape. Cato Institute. Doug Bandow. 9 November 2022 This article appeared in American Institute for Economic Research on November 9, 2022. Xi Jinping is living large. He successfully stage‐​managed the ... more ...

It’s an expensive habit to think about the military not as a practical tool but as a symbol of strategic intent. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Hugh White. 8 November 2022. ... more ...

Just days after Netanyahu’s political rebirth, one of his closest political associates said that the military option will be on the table for the new government. Breaking Defence. Arie Egozi. 8 November, 2022. ... more ...

The question is: is the United States ready for it? Task & Purpose. Max Hauptman. 8 November, 2022 ... more ...

From strong representation among Asian navies to a “coincidence” involving a U.S. aircraft carrier. The Diplomat. Takahashi Kosuke. 8 November 2022. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) hosted the International Fleet Review (IFR) ... more ...

Australian Naval Institute. Kim Beazley. 3 November 2022. In 1946, US President Harry Truman, addressing Congress on the state of the Lend-Lease program, observed: ‘On balance, the contribution made by Australia, a country having a population of about 7 million, approximately equalled that of ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Peter Briggs. 3 November 2022. Submarines provide a unique, asymmetrical capability, giving the Australian government a range of options not offered by other platforms. Their critical importance has been emphasised in multiple defence white papers, most notably since 2009 when an ... more ...

Rumours circulating on secure social media “east of the Balkans” are beginning to suggest that Vladimir Putin may not be as secure as President of the Russian Federation as he might think he is. UK Defence Journal. Stuart Crawford. 1 November, 2022 “Mad Vlad”, ... more ...

The Australian. Allan DuPont. 3 November 2022. Despite the increasingly contentious blame game about who is responsible for the chronic failure to deliver promised defence capabilities on time and on budget, Labor and the ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 28 Oct 2022. The two independent leads of Australia’s defence strategic review, Stephen Smith and Angus Houston, have got their work cut out for them. The terms of reference require the reviewers to assess Australia’s strategic circumstances, recommend the ... more ...

Spectator Australia. 2 November 2022. China’s 20th Party ... more ...

The angry reaction to Richard Marles’ comments should be a warning to Canberra about the need to settle past grievances. Lowy Institute. Anthony Regan. 31 October 2022. During a visit to Papua New Guinea earlier this month by Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister ... more ...

USNI. John Grady. 1 November, 2022 Attacks on Russia’s Black Sea fleet over the weekend are showing Moscow the vulnerability of its ships in port to new types of unmanned weapons, a ... more ...

War On The Rocks. BJ Armstrong. 2 November, 2022. The American sea services were busy on Oct. 18, 2022. The destroyer USS Roosevelt was in the Baltic Sea, visiting Poland as it concluded the Joint Warrior 22-2 exercise. The American aircraft carrier George H.W. ... more ...

B**eijing warns basing more aircraft in the region could trigger arms race ** Wall Street Journal. Mike Cherney. 31 October 2022. SYDNEY—The U.S. is laying the groundwork for further deployment of long-range ... more ...

China analyst Dean Cheng breaks down the key military aspects of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s statements at the recent Party Congress. Breaking Defence. Dean Cheng. 28 October, 2022 ... more ...

While U.S. commanders were planning to invade the Philippines, Japanese planners, unsure where the next Allied blow would fall, drew up four Sho (Victory) contingency plans. The intricate Sho-1 plan to counter a Philippines invasion would eventually call for three separate naval surface forces to converge on Leyte Gulf and ... more ...

Tokyo Has Proved Its Mettle as a Security Partner Foreign Affairs. Michael Auslin. 28 October, 2022 On July 13, nearly five months in to Russia’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, the Pentagon announced ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 27 Oct 2022. Australia is in style inside the Washington beltway. While AUKUS might not yet have a slogan like the ‘Throw another shrimp on the barbie’ that characterised earlier rounds of American Australophilia, it has captured the imagination ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Anthony Bergin and Neil Baird. 27 Oct 2022. In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy saw considerable value in Milne Bay as a maritime and aviation base from which to attack northern Australia. Milne Bay is noted for the ‘Turning Point’ battle, ... more ...

CIMSEC. LtCol Brent Stricker. 26 October 2022. “I thought of the many times that I had hear the military take positions which, if wrong, had the advantage that no one would be around at the end to know.” –Robert F. Kennedy, October 19, 1962.1 ... more ...

CIMSEC. Bill Golden. 25 October 2022. First awarded in 1975, the SWO pin was created to identify a cadre of professional mariners who operate U.S. warships, largely in response to the insignia worn by aviators and submariners.1 As a result of the evolution in ... more ...

Loitering munitions have become the tip of the spear in the future of warfare. The Diplomat. Zachary Williams. 21 October, 2022 Loitering munitions have been in use for the past two decades in contested regions such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, with great success ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Thibault Muzergues. 21 October, 2022 From migration to energy and food security, the Mediterranean has emerged as an overlooked front in Russia’s war with the West. As its name suggests, the Mediterranean is a sea that sits between lands. For ... more ...

Gary Roughead calls for four-nation group to rotate command Nikkei Asia. Kentaro Iwamoto. 21 October, 2022. TOKYO – The Quad security grouping of the U.S., Japan, Australia ... more ...

Defense News. Col. Maximilian Bremer and Kelly Grieco. October 2022. Ukraine’s recent two-front counteroffensive has dealt a heavy blow ... more ...

Expanding Belt and Road economic corridor opens new possibilities for trade Nikkei Asia. 20 October, 2022 BANGKOK/YANGON – When the West cut off aid to Myanmar ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Charles Edel. 19 Oct 2022. Last week, US President Joe Biden released his administration’s long-delayed national security strategy. It opens with a sense of urgency, declaring this a ‘decisive decade for America and the world’ to outmanoeuvre global competitors and address ... more ...

CIMSEC. Vice-Admiral Vasili Arkhipov. 19 October 2022. The following translation was conducted by Svetlana Savranskaya for the National Security Archive and is republished with permission. Read it in its original form here. Presentation at the Conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 14, 1997, ... more ...

His China combines Marxism-Leninism with nationalist aggression. WSJ. The Editorial Board. 16 October, 2022 The most ... more ...

The Cato Institute. Doug Bandow. 14 October, 2022 The US and its European allies apparently no longer need to prove Russia’s guilt for anything. After the attack on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, they blamed Moscow, their charges avidly pushed by Western journalists who feast on official press ... more ...

Heritage Foundation. Peter Jennings. 18 October, 2022 On September 15, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a virtual media conference to announce “the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership called ‘AUKUS’—Australia, the ... more ...

Can Russia’s War in Ukraine End Like the Vietnam War? Foreign Affairs. Gideon Rose. 14 October, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to recent military setbacks with defiance. After Ukrainian military successes this fall, Putin has ... more ...

CIMSEC. Leut Andrew Bishop And 1st Leut Alexander Huang. 17 October, 2022 Perhaps it is instilled in the American spirit, or maybe the country has grown accustomed to it, but reliance on the offense-first mentality of the Navy and Marine Corps will cost the ... more ...

During the Lingayen operation January 1945, HMAS Australia was hit five times by suicide bombers. Except for the hole in the ship’s side and the casualties among AA crews, her fighting efficiency was not impaired. USNI. Naval History Magazine. Richard Latture. October 2022 ... more ...

Proceedings. Captain George Galdorisi, U.S. Navy (Retired). October 2022 ... more ...

Options to repair underseas fibre-optic cables in the event of war or sabotage are limited. This must change. USNI. Proceedings. Captain Douglas R. Burnett, U.S. Navy (Retired). October 2022 What should the U.S. ... more ...

He has unleashed an array of military, economic and political campaigns to brace the country for the possibility of confrontation WSJ. Jonathan Cheng. 14 October 2022 Since rising to power ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Jeremy Shapiro. 2022. In war, nothing is inevitable and not much is predictable. But the war in Ukraine has a direction that observers can see and that we should name. What began as a criminal Russian aggression against Ukraine has ... more ...

Classic military operations and nimble battlefield decision-making are exploiting the incompetence and top-down command of Russian forces Wall Street Journal. Stephen Fidler, James Marson, Thomas Grove. 12 Oct 2022 Eight months into Ukraine’s war with Russia, its emerging strategy is combining classic military operations ... more ...

CIMSEC. Ben DiDonato. 12 October 2022. With the return of great power competition, the threat posed by hostile submarines has garnered renewed attention. Russia’s submarine fleet in particular has been regarded as a serious threat for decades and its latest SSNs are reportedly nearly ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 11 October 2022. Defence Minister Richard Marles said one incredibly important thing on Monday. It couldn’t be clearer and it bears repeating: “In a rational world, defence spending is a function of strategic threat. And we ... more ...

The Australian. Dave Sharma. 11 October 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been on the back foot these past weeks, but he has doubled down on his aggression. The war in Ukraine is likely to reach a new level of ... more ...

The Australian. Ben Packham. 10 October 2022. A high-level Defence review is looking at acquiring a new fleet of small but powerful warships to give the navy a rapid firepower boost in response to growing strategic ... more ...

Marine turned lawmaker Mike Gallagher warns that the U.S. is far more vulnerable to losing a war than the public recognizes. Wall Street Journal. Kate Bachelder Odell. 7 October 2022 Russia has invaded Ukraine and threatens nuclear war, China is eyeing Taiwan, Iran holds ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Kim Beazley. 6 Oct 2022. The independent leads of Australia’s defence strategic review, Stephen Smith and Angus Houston, have a tough task on their hands. It’s the first such review since Paul Dibb’s in 1986, which largely governed the 1987 white ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 4 Oct 2022. I’ve often thought that Australia’s submarine transition is a wicked problem, perhaps one of the most wicked in the public policy arena. A wicked problem is one that is difficult or even impossible to solve because ... more ...

Manila can make its mark in the Indo-Pacific by choosing its friends, and its maritime deterrents, strategically. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Chester Cabalza & Joshua Espena. 5 October 2022. ... more ...

Beijing isolating island via military drills hard to counter, defense official warns Nikkei Asia. Ryo Nakamura. 5 October 2022 WASHINGTON – If China imposed a maritime blockade of ... more ...

Swarmly updates its unarmed, jam-resistant drones as new information comes in from Ukraine’s battlefield. Defense One. Patrick Tucker. 3 October 2022. A family of drones designed to operate against extremist groups is proving effective against the Russian military, and their ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Alexander B. Gray. 30 September, 2022 By now, it should be abundantly clear that Solomon Islands, under Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, is abandoning democracy and falling ever deeper into the orbit of the People’s Republic of China. Since coming to ... more ...

Vladimir Putin claims ‘our unity’ as justification for latest land grab Nikkei Asia. Shogo Akagawa. 1October, 2022 LONDON – Russia’s move Friday to annex four occupied ... more ...

The Spectator. Benjamin Crocker. 30 September 2022. The Chinese Communist Party is gnashing its teeth at the theatre of history, desperate to enter stage left as King, with diminishing regard for collateral damage. Absent any historic course-corrections, China will move to capture Taiwan. The ... more ...

Defense chief Austin checks progress at naval facility in California Nikkei Asia. Ryo Nakamura. 29 September 2022 SAN DIEGO, U.S. – The U.S. Navy is moving to ... more ...

Biden administration plans to open 3 embassies in region to bolster influence Nikkei Asia. Jack Stone Truitt. 30 September 2022. NEW YORK – The White ... more ...

The military balance is shifting China’s way, and half-abandoning a policy of strategic ambiguity won’t change that. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Hugh White. 27 September 2022. The more often US ... more ...

Being able to sink ships doesn’t end a war. Australia should consider ballistic nuclear missile subs as an alternative. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Peter Layton. 29 September 2022. Nuclear-powered attack submarines ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Nick Danby. 28 Sep 2022. In September 2014, Sri Lanka stirred the embers of conflict in the Indian Ocean region by allowing Chinese naval vessels to dock at one of its ports. At the time, India took issue with the visit, ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. John Coyne. 29 Sep 2022 The terms of reference for the defence strategic review provided by the government to the independent leads are just short of two pages long. The length of this document doesn’t do justice to all that the ... more ...

War On The Rocks. John D. Maurer. 27 September, 2022 On Oct. 8, 1973, the Israel Defense Forces launched a major counterattack on Egyptian positions in the Sinai spearheaded by three armoured brigades. Israeli commanders expected to repeat their rapid 1967 victory over the ... more ...

The Spectator. Jonathan Sumption. 24 September 2022. Review of ‘Not One Inch: America, Russia and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate” by M.E. Sarotte. Yale University Press, This is an important and topical ... more ...

Submarine deals and ship deployment hint at Beijing’s power projection Nikkei Asia. Ken Moriyasu and Kiran Sharma. 27 September 2022. TOKYO/NEW DELHI – ... more ...

American sea power has always hinged on the nation’s ability to build and maintain alliances and partnerships. Proceedings. Tom Hone. July 2022. ... more ...

**Admiral Hyman G. Rickover ** This speech was delivered by Adm. Rickover at a Luncheon Meeting of the San Diego Rotary Club, San Diego, California, on Thursday, February 10, 1977. Voltaire once said: “Not to be occupied and not to exist are one and the same thing for a man.” ... more ...

Proposal seeks to expedite capabilities for ally by mid-2030s, until it can build its own, in bid to counter China Wall Street Journal. Michael R. Gordon. 23 September 2022. The Biden administration is exploring an arrangement to expedite Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines to ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Robert “Tony” Vincent. 23 September 2022. Aurora Borealis is the scientific term given to the natural light phenomenon of the Northern Lights. On July 9, 1962, the light phenomenon that Hawaiians watched was anything but natural. On that day, the ... more ...

A broader view of security offers enormous potential benefits for Australia. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Victor Abramowicz. 20 September 2022. n August this year, the Australian government announced a holistic Defence Strategic ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Robert Haddick. 21 September, 2022 Washington has already lost the war for Taiwan — at least according to the most recent wargames organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The think tank’s simulation of a conflict between the ... more ...

Reuters. Kirsty Needham. 20 September 2022. SYDNEY, Sept 20 (Reuters) - China sees the Pacific islands as an area of significant strategic interest ... more ...

War On The Rocks. David Walton. 20 September 2022. Is advancing women’s interests worth destroying America’s most elite military units? One can hardly peruse media (social and otherwise) without hearing histrionic tales of plummeting standards and woeful urban legends of the crumbling of ... more ...

Spectator Australia. Justin Bronk. 18 September 2022. In the run up to the Russian invasion in February airpower analysts, including this author, were gloomy about Ukraine’s ability to defend its airspace. Even the more optimistic assessments assumed that Russia would mount a significant air ... more ...

How To Ensure China Can’t Dominate The Pacific? DR. JAMES HOLMES: THE NAVAL DIPLOMAT. August, 2022 If you harboured any doubt that the first island chain represents the focal point of strategy, counterstrategy, and counter-counterstrategy in the Western Pacific, take a gander ... more ...

Defense Media Network. Norman Friedman. January 2022. Most observers think of the Gulf War as a land and air campaign; surely the naval aspect was secondary. In fact it was primary: Without the seapower, the war could ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Brendan Nicholson. 6 Sep 2022 The prospect of the Royal Australian Navy’s promised nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) being built in Australia is firming up, along with a determination that they will be of a design shared with the United States or the ... more ...

Don’t expect any more tank columns massing on highways like sitting ducks. Defense One. Patrick Tucker. 14 September 2022. TEL AVIV, Israel—The future ... more ...

The Strategist. Lawrence Freedman. 14 Sep 2022. “How did you go bankrupt?’ ‘Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.’ ― Ernest Hemingway, The sun also rises As with bankruptcy so with military defeat. What appears to be a long, painful grind can quickly turn into a ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. James Garlick. 15 Sep 2022. A significant proportion of defence commentary these days is focused on quickly and cost-effectively enhancing the Australian Defence Force’s lethality in the context of China’s growing power and assertiveness. Much of this discussion is concerned with ... more ...

Australians deserve the details of what nuclear-powered submarines mean – for national defence and identity alike. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 13 September 2022. On 15 September 2021, Prime ... more ...

Ex-Google, DOD leaders paint dire picture unless U.S. organizes to win technology races. Defense One. Lauren C. Williams and Patrick Tucker. 12 September 2022. ... more ...

With diplomatic tensions and conflict commanding the world’s attention, it is increasingly clear that a new age of military operations beckons. Naval Technology. Andrew Tunnicliffe. 12 September, 2022 ... more ...

The first of five new corvettes recently arrived at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah, upgrading the Saudi fleet’s capabilities in the Red Sea. Breaking Defense, Agnes Helou. 9 September, 2022 BEIRUT — ... more ...

A narrative of resentment and betrayal The Atlantic. Tom Nichols. 10 September 2022 Run Amok I spent years teaching military officers who served in conflicts all around the globe. I am not naïve about the viciousness ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Michael Shoebridge. 2 Sep 2022. There’s a moment to realise that you’re being played for a sucker. That moment has come for the Australian government in the case of the current Solomons Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare. Since the new Australian ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Amin Saikal. 31 Aug 2022. As the Russo-Ukraine conflict continues with no resolution in sight, we are painfully reminded of not only the horror of war, but also how often major powers’ interventionism, for whatever objective, hasn’t paid off. These powers ... more ...

Defense News. Masao Dahlgren. 23 August 2022. History’s bloodiest wars often begin with ... more ...

The Strategist. Jeffrey Wall. 1 Sep 2022. The first visit to Papua New Guinea by Foreign Minister Penny Wong was probably a success the moment she arrived in Port Moresby. It removed, or at least eased, one longstanding irritant in the Australia–PNG relationship. It ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Graeme Dobell. 31 Aug 2022. Great powers don’t die in bed, the realist judgement goes. Empires fall amid flames and war. Not so, answered Mikhail Gorbachev, proving his greatness by achieving the gentle end of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s achievement was ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Rob Bourke. 30 Aug 2022. Dominating the debate on Australia’s defence-capability development is a long list of expensive new weapons to buy. But there are two broader issues to consider: the likely cost of development substantially exceeding the Defence Department’s planned ... more ...

‘Embarrassment’ as new aircraft carrier’s landmark mission to the US hangs in the balance over major fault The Telegraph. Dominic Nicholls and Danielle Sheridan. 30 August 2022 HMS Prince of Wales’s “landmark mission” to the ... more ...

Technological Advancements Are Helping Kyiv Succeed Foreign Affairs. Lauren Kahn. 29 August, 2022. At the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most experts expected that Kyiv would fall quickly. Ukrainian forces were ... more ...

Silencing dissent also nips innovation in the bud Nikkei Asia. 29 August 2022. It emerged in the central Chinese province of Henan in June that local authorities had abused an anti-COVID app to contain the movements of more than 1,300 people. Yang, who lives in Shandong Province, is one of ... more ...

Adm. Gilday calls New Delhi an essential strategic partner of the future Nikkei Asia. Ken Moriyasu. 27 August 2022. TOKYO – India will ... more ...

The Australian. Ben Packham. 26 August 2022. Australia is looking to push ahead with the expansion of its F-35 stealth fighter fleet and is considering buying US B-21 bombers to give the nation a new long-range strike capability, in ... more ...

Why Beijing Can Afford to Bide Its Time Foreign Affairs. Oriana Skylar Mastro and Derek Scissors. 22 August, 2022. As relations between the United States and China have spiralled down to a half-century low, ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 25 Aug 2022. According to media reporting, the Australian defence company DefendTex will provide Ukraine with 300 of its Drone40 small uncrewed aerial vehicles. The specification sheet for the D40 says it has a range of 20 kilometres and ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. David Brewster. 25 Aug 2022. A recent study published by the US Army War College looks at how geography constrained the Soviet military presence in the Indian Ocean and the lessons that can be drawn for China’s efforts to become an ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Christopher P. Twomey. 22 August 2022. The Chinese military exercises that began on Aug. 3, 2022, have initiated the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis. The most immediate reason for this was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. But this is a ... more ...

The Australian. Cameron Stewart. 24 August 2022. A $6bn proposal to acquire three new air warfare destroyers ... more ...

Five questions with surface navy stakeholders Defense News. Megan Eckstein. 22 August 2022. WASHINGTON — The ... more ...

2022 Goldrick Conference Flyer.pdf 2022 Goldrick Conference Program.pdf ... more ...

National preparedness for a cross-strait emergency has been far behind what is necessary. The Diplomat. Kosuke Takahashi. 20 August, 2022. While China is increasing military pressure on Taiwan following the controversial visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, Japan is in ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Bob Moyse. 19 Aug 2022. In his latest ASPI Strategic Insight paper, Michael Shoebridge identifies the key challenges Australia’s defence strategic review faces. The terms of reference for the review say that its purpose is ‘to consider the priority of investment ... more ...

Forbes. David Axe. 18 August 2022. The commanders of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet are scared to send their surviving surface warships beyond sight of the Crimean coast. It’s not hard to understand why. In keeping 20 miles or so ... more ...

Why Time Is Running Out to Secure U.S. Interests Foreign Affairs. Gregory Poling. 18 August, 2022 Since the 1980s, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has sought to be the dominant power in the South China Sea. China has ... more ...

Center for International Maritime Security. Bill Shafley. 18 August 2022. A destroyer squadron (DESRON) staff’s employment as a Sea Combat Commander in the Composite Warfare Commander (CWC) construct is unnecessarily narrow and prevents a more lethal and agile strike group. Tomorrow’s fight requires multiple ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Michael Shoebridge. 17 Aug 2022. The Labor government’s defence strategic review will explore how the Australian military is positioned and enabled to operate in our region as the security environment requires. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the review on 3 August ... more ...

What Washington Can Learn From Beijing’s Overreaction Foreign Affairs. Ryan Hass. 16 August, 2022 In the aftermath of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ill-timed trip to Taiwan, China’s leaders were determined not to let a good ... more ...

Quadrant. Tom Lewis. 13 August 2022. The story of the midget submarine raids on Sydney is one in which senior commanders bungled and got away with it. Meanwhile, the commanders of the small ships that attacked and sunk two of the submarines went unrewarded. ... more ...

Baird Maritime. Anthony Bergin. 9 August, 2022 In January, the UK’s defence chief, Tony Radakin, warned that Russian submarine and underwater activities were directly ... more ...

“Under-manned units over-operate, resulting in an unrested and less specialized force. And the only real solution to this issue is to add fresh bodies to the force.” Breaking Defense. Mackenzie Eaglen. 12 August 2022. ... more ...

An analysis of foreign ministry statements from across the Asia-Pacific region reveals which countries are hewing close to China’s line, which lean toward the U.S., and which are staying neutral. The Diplomat. Shannon Tiezzi. Editor in Chief. 13 August 2022. ... more ...

The Australian. Paul Dibb. 15 August 2022. When announcing his Defence Strategic Review on ... more ...

A 2022 Reality Check On PLA Enlisted Force And Related Matters War on the Rocks. Marcus Clay, Dennis J. Blasko, Roderick Lee. 12 August, 2022 Modelled after the Soviet Red Army at its creation from its name to its first flag, the People’s Liberation ... more ...

Being Ready Is the Best Way to Prevent a Fight With China Foreign Affairs. Elbridge Colby. 10 August, 2022. Why isn’t the United States doing more to prepare for war with China ... more ...

The Mandarin. John Glenn. August 2022. There have been at least 50 Defence reviews in 50 years. The 2015 First Principles review listed 48 since the 1973 Tange review and there have been quite a few since. Not all were about procurement, of course, but all have been about better ... more ...

Valdai. Prokhor Tebin. 04 August, 2022. The new Naval Doctrine is strikingly different from the 2015 edition. The world described in it seems much more disturbing and dangerous; its potential for conflict has increased significantly, Valdai Club expert Prokhor Tebin writes. On Russian Navy ... more ...

USNI. John Grady. 5 August, 2022 Despite China’s recent aggression toward Taiwan, former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster argued this week that Taiwan “not an easy military problem” for Beijing to solve. Speaking during a Hudson Institute online forum on Thursday, the retired Army ... more ...

How the War in Ukraine Turned Moscow Into Beijing’s Junior Partner Foreign Affairs. Alexander Gabuev. 9 August, 2022. The war in Ukraine has cut Russia off from much of the Western world. Barraged ... more ...

PLA announces continuation of military drills that were due to end Sunday Nikkei Asia. Thompson Chau. 8 August 2022. TAIPEI – Beijing’s encircling of Taiwan with large-scale ... more ...

Washington, Beijing and Taipei are watching each other closely as events unfold near Taiwan. Politico. Paul McCleary and Lara Seligman. 5 Aug 2022. ... more ...

Aukus could create unintended consequences Spectator. Ramesh Thakur. 6 August 2022. The Turnbull government’s decision to buy a fleet of diesel submarines from France instead of Japan was unsettling. Conversely, France’s existing nuclear-powered submarines, while eschewing nuclear weapons, would have cost less cost and ... more ...

The Strategist. Malcolm Davis. 4 Aug 2022. The Labor Party’s pre-election promise of a defence force posture review has now taken shape as a much more expansive strategic review encompassing the Australian Defence Force’s structure, posture and investment requirements over the next 10 years ... more ...

The Strategist. James Goldrick. 3 Aug 2022. Australia’s recent change of government provides a useful opportunity to reflect on the problems of the South China Sea and the way ahead for our national policies. In a sense, the clear continuity between the approach of ... more ...

Four unmanned surface vessels sailed with manned ships, sharing data and testing how they would operate with the larger U.S. fleet. Defense One. Caitlin M. Kenney. 3 August 2022 JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii—Docked by the sunken wreckage of a 1909 dreadnought, two ... more ...

Defense News. Megan Eckstein. 4 August 2022. MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII — ... more ...

Why Indo-Pacific Power Hinges on Taiwan Foreign Affairs. Brendan Rittenhouse Green and Caitlin Talmadge. August 2022. Of all the intractable issues that could spark a hot war between the United States and China, Taiwan is ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 3 August 2022. Australia’s Defence Force will be reshaped under an ambitious ­review to be announced on Wednesday by Anthony Albanese and the Defence Minister. The ... more ...

First hand account of the engineering success story behind Britain’s two new warships The Telegraph. Sir Bernard Gray. 1 August 2022. Asecret cabal of shadowy mandarins conspiring to subvert the state. The armed ... more ...

Spectator. David Archibald. 31 July 2022. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, Carroll Quigley noted that the Chinese communist regime in the 1950s was insanely aggressive. The Nationalist government they replaced had been just as expansionist. It was allegedly a Nationalist fishing boat ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Peter Layton. 26 Jul 2022. Artificial intelligence is a general-purpose technology that is steadily becoming pervasive across global society. AI is now beginning to interest the world’s defence forces, but the military comes late to the game. Given this, defence forces ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 27 Jul 2022. The Labor government’s election platform contained a commitment to conduct a ‘defence force posture review’. Historically, Australia’s defence posture reviews have mainly considered where Australian Defence Force assets are based. Different stakeholders have inconsistent goals: the ... more ...

What interim solutions should Canberra explore ahead of the delivery of the Royal Australian Navy’s future SSN fleet? Defence Connect. 26 July 2022. During a visit to Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence ... more ...

How will the modern battlefield change as nations compete for hearts-and-minds through new information vectors? Almost every modern analysis of information operations cites the Sun Tzu line “to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” And rightly so. In the ... more ...

Don’t build a fleet to fight off a Chinese invasion force; build one that gives the U.S. and allies more options. Defense One. Bryan Clarke. 26 July 2022. U.S. Marines are using this year’s Rim of the Pacific exercise to practice with allies the tactics they would use to disrupt ... more ...

War on the Rocks. Chris Bernotavicius, Michelle Macander, Danielle Ngo, And John Schaus. 26 July, 2022 The U.S military is at risk of repeating Russia’s logistics failures in Ukraine during a war in the Indo-Pacific. One of the enduring images from Russia’s disastrous invasion ... more ...

Baird Maritime. Trevor Hollingsbee. 29 June, 2022 A popular conception is that international communications nowadays rely mainly upon satellites. This, though, is very far from being the case. There are about 440 undersea cables stretching over a total of 885,000 kilometres. These cables ... more ...

War on the Rocks. Koichiro Takagi. 22 July 2022. With the development of AI, neuroscience, and digital applications like social media, senior officers and strategists in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) claim that, in the future, it will be possible to influence the ... more ...

How can Australia offset the geopolitical risks of Chinese ascendancy in the event of a steep decline in US power? Defence Connect. Charbel Kadib. 22 JULY 2022. The Australian public is increasingly wary of Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, with recent military confrontations a ... more ...

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and the Limits of Military Power Foreign Affairs. Lawrence Freedman. July/August 2022 In February 27, a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian forces launched an operation to seize the Chornobaivka airfield near Kherson on the Black Sea coast. Kherson ... more ...

Admiral Sir Ben Key says ‘focusing solely on the bear risks missing the tiger’ and that China would have been emboldened by the Ukraine war. The Telegraph (UK). Danielle Sheridan. 19 July 2022. ... more ...

Defense News. Sebastian Sprenger. 15 July 2022. COLOGNE, ... more ...

The White House is expected to announce another weapons shipment to Ukraine this week. Defense One. Jacqueline Feldscher. 19 JULY, 2022. ... more ...

CIMSEC. Przemyslaw Ziemacki. 18 July 2022. Amphibious and transport operations can play a vital role at all levels of war, but landing craft can do much more than just move things – they can also shoot. The global growth of anti-access/area denial capabilities favours ... more ...

Defence Connect. 13 July 2022. With US defence spending and materiel flowing into Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is essential that US policymakers not overlook the looming security challenge in the Indo-Pacific. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth month, US ... more ...

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will visit Tehran next week, along with the leader of Turkey. But competition in oil markets reflects a complicated new landscape. New York Times. 12 July 2022. Tricky diplomatic terrain awaits as Russian leader travels to Tehran. ... more ...

The Australian. Adam Creighton. 13 July 2022. Defence Minister Richard Marles has cast doubt on the chance the nation’s first nuclear powered submarine — which he said could be UK-designed — would arrive much before the 2040s, fearing a “capability gap” will emerge as ... more ...

Self-inflicted damage is irreversible as long as Putin remains in charge Nikkei Asia. Ian Bremmer. 20 June 22. Russia continues to make gains on the ground in Ukraine, particularly in the Donbas region, where the ... more ...

Moscow’s withdrawal from strategic Snake Island shows ‘A2/AD’ is not easy Nikkei Asia. Sinan Tavasan. 5 July, 2022 ISTANBUL – When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, its ... more ...

Ukraine and the Dangerous Rise in Military Spending Foreign Affairs. Nan Tian, Diego Lopes da Silva, and Alexandra Marksteiner. 7 July, 2022 In the days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a host of countries ... more ...

Recent comments from Chinese officials highlight how Beijing purposefully conflates existing legal terminology with its own extra-legal claims. The Diplomat. Raymond Powell. 29 June, 2022 On June 13th, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin held an extraordinary press conference in which he made a ... more ...

China’s non-kinetic physical anti-satellite weapons, including DEWs, will play a critical part in future warfare. The Diplomat. Oskar Glaese. 29 June, 2022 China’s soon-to-be-completed space station has garnered much media attention as a symbol of Chinese power projection into space. In comparison, little attention ... more ...

Such a move would strengthen the international rules-based order Nikkei Asia. Kosuke Takahashi. 5 July, 2022 Bringing up a lot of good reasons for its self-justification, ... more ...

War On The Rocks. David Johnson. 5 July 2022. How would the high-tech U.S. military fare in a war against China or Russia? The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War may provide some answers. It may call into question some deeply held U.S. military axioms. Two of ... more ...

NATO’s game-changing commitment to boost military spending and high-readiness ­forces will transform the European balance of power in favour of democracies. But the opposite is occurring here. The Australian. Alan DuPont. 1 July 2022. ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 2 July 2022. With the NATO summit in Spain, attended by Anthony Albanese, ideological conflict has gone global. Australia lines up with its old friends, the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, even, astonishingly, New Zealand, and against its old enemies, ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer and Andrew Nicholls. 28 Jun 2022. In our previous post, we considered the likelihood of the US providing Australia with Virginia-class submarines this decade. Doing so would require the US Navy to give up two of its nuclear-powered attack ... more ...

CIMSEC. Steve Wills. 29 June 2022. The recent loss of the Russian Navy guided missile cruiser RFS Moskva from a cruise missile strike called forth many comparisons to previous losses of large surface combatants, including the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano and even the ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Dustin Walker. 29 June 2022. Eight years ago, Vladimir Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine and illegal seizure of Crimea forced the United States to get serious about deterrence in Europe — and pay for it. In the proceeding years, the ... more ...

The Australian. Hugh White. 25 June 2022. Our pro-war with China posture will do us great damage even if it never comes to war itself. As long as America ... more ...

The Strategist. John Garrick and Yan C. Bennett. 17 Jun 2022. President Xi Jinping’s ‘China dream’ now extends across the Pacific Ocean, where his foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently completed a Pacific islands tour of sweeping ambition. Set against the backdrop of China’s stagnating ... more ...

Why China Isn’t Poised to Invade Foreign Affairs. Andrew J. Nathan. 23 June , 2022 Concern is growing in Taiwan, in the United States, and among U.S. allies in Asia that China is preparing to attack Taiwan ... more ...

USNI. Mallory Shelbourne. 15 June, 2022 A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled legislation that would help the Royal Australian ... more ...

The Spectator Australia. Jarrod Brady. 15 June 2022. Amidst the foreboding context of a declining West and a rising China, the Australian Defence Force is historically weak and shows little sign of changing course. The ADF is beset by a threefold disease of absent ... more ...

The laws set by the United Nations 40 years ago no longer suit the fight against modern-day crime on the high seas. The Lowy Institute. Thu Nguyen Hoang Anh. 9 June 2022. ... more ...

Marles warns build up is the biggest since WWII; concerned about Solomon deal NikkeiAsia. Rurika Imahashi and Kaori Takahashi. 14 June, 2022 TOKYO – China’s rapid military buildup is the biggest in ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Joe Bruhl. 14 June 2022. America’s ambivalence toward Africa puts it at a dangerous disadvantage there — and impacts U.S. leadership around the globe. While Washington focuses on the Russian military threat in Eastern Europe and Chinese expansionism in the ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 6 Jun 2022.Michael Shoebridge. The 26 May incident where a Chinese fighter aircraft fired flares and chaff at an Australian maritime patrol aircraft in international airspace above the South China Sea, risking a potentially fatal crash, is not an isolated episode. ... more ...

The Australian. Peter Dutton. 8 June 2022. When the AUKUS agreement was signed last ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 8 Jun 2022 In March, shortly before federal election, the Coalition government released a defence budget that continued its record of delivering the funding it promised in the 2016 defence white paper and 2020 defence strategic update. For 2022–23, ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Richard Dunley. 2 Jun 2022. Since the AUKUS announcement was made in September last year, a huge amount of ink has been spilled discussing the capabilities of nuclear-powered submarines, the merits of the potential designs, and the challenges of ensuring the ... more ...

Spectator Australia. Jarrad Brady. 1 June 2022. Australia is facing an existential crisis that demands immediate and radical action. The confluence of China’s rise, a declining America, and the parlous state of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) pose the gravest threat to Australia since ... more ...

The United States should pursue offensive mining capabilities against China in the Yellow Sea and the Pearl River Delta. USNI. Proceedings. Commander Victor Duenow, U.S. Navy. June 2022. ... more ...

Washington fears a possible Chinese invasion by 2027. It will need all the help it can get Nikkei Asia. Ken Moriyasu. 1 June 2022. ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 5 June 2022. An open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles Dear Anthony and Richard, Congratulations on your election win – majority ... more ...

War-Gaming Reveals How a U.S.-Chinese Conflict Might Escalate Foreign Affairs. Stacie L. Pettyjohn and Becca Wasser. 20 May, 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised the specter of nuclear ... more ...

Compelling evidence suggests the Hornet CO deliberately filed a misleading report after the puzzling ‘flight to nowhere’ in the Pacific war’s pivotal battle. USNI Proceedings. Craig L. Symonds. May 2012 ... more ...

How Commercial Satellites Are Upending Conflict Foreign Affairs. Erik Lin-Greenberg & Theo Milonopoulos. 30 May, 2022 Days after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an emotional address to the European Parliament, pleading for ... more ...

The Thousand-Year Struggle Over Ukraine Foreign Affairs. Anna Reid. May/June 2022 On the evening of February 21, 2022, three days before Russian forces began the largest land invasion on the European continent since World War II, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an angry televised ... more ...

While the contributions U.S. codebreakers made to victory at Midway are well known, cryptanalysts played a similarly important—though less appreciated—role in determining Japanese intentions leading up to the Battle of the Coral Sea. USNI. Proceedings. John Prados. June 2022. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Brahma Chellaney. 24 May 2022 With global attention focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s territorial expansionism in Asia—especially its expanding border conflict with India—has largely fallen off the international community’s radar. Yet, in the vast glaciated heights of the Himalayas, ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. John Coyne. 25 May 2022 It took a while, but the idea that Australia’s strategic environment has become more uncertain seems to have been accepted by policymakers. Also largely accepted is that this period won’t just pass—in time, historians might measure ... more ...

The Royal Navy will soon have three new frigate classes, namely the Type 26, Type 31 and Type 32 but how much do you really know about them? This brief guide should bring you up to speed on the basics. UK Defence Journal. George Allison. 25 May, 2022. ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Zack Cooper and Gregory Poling. 24 May 2022. The biggest announcement from President Joe Biden’s trip to Asia may be the one that got the least attention. The Quad, a grouping consisting of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, ... more ...

Security pact tests old benefactors like Australia amid vaccine diplomacy rush Nikkei Asia. Elizabeth Beattie. 17 May, 2022 ... more ...

CIMSEC. Robert C. Rubel. 18 MAY, 2022. Thomas Friedman’s 13 April New York Times opinion piece recounts an interview with John Arquilla, a distinguished former grand strategy instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School. In explaining Ukraine’s impressive military performance in the face of ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Mike Pietrucha. 18 May, 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set off a flurry of handwringing over Taiwan. Russia, in this interpretation, “broke the ice” by attacking Ukraine, emboldening China versus Taiwan. But any such action by China would likely run ... more ...

Security pact tests old benefactors like Australia amid vaccine diplomacy rush Nikkei Asia. Elizabeth Beattie. 17 May 2022. TOKYO – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison boasted in March about how his country’s COVID-19 vaccine aid to Pacific islands had prevented a Chinese “incursion” into the region. About two weeks later, ... more ...

Calls to cut burden drowned by need for U.S. and Japan to face off China Nikkei Asia. Yukio Tajima, Ryo Nemoto, and Shogo Kodama. 14 May, 2022 TOKYO/NAHA, Okinawa – Sunday ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Peter Jennings. 10 May 2022. Unexpectedly, the loudest exchange in the pre-election debate between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and opposition leader Anthony Albanese on Sunday night was over the Port of Darwin. The 99-year lease of the port to a Chinese ... more ...

CIMSEC. Richard Mosier. 12 May, 2022 The concept for Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) is based on three bedrock tenets: the distributed force must be hard-to-find, hard-to-kill, and lethal. For decades, the Navy has been focused on and has continuously improved its fleet defense capabilities ... more ...

Dear NHSA Members and Volunteers in NSW, Although this message is primarily addressed to those of you resident in Sydney, please read the attachment and pass it on to others in Sydney whom you feel may have an interest in supporting your Society. The attachment is an appeal for volunteers ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 10 May 2022. Frustrating Beijing’s ambitions to create a sphere of influence is overwhelmingly a diplomatic task, not a military one. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Bob Moyse.12 May 2022. The electioneering in Australia over the security agreement between China and Solomon Islands has obscured important questions about why the deal came about and its future implications. At the core of China’s grey-zone tactics is the principle ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer.11 May 2022. There will be much celebration of the Royal Australian Navy’s achievements at this week’s Indo-Pacific Sea Power Conference and maritime exposition. They are significant. Five years of Indo-Pacific Endeavour activities have demonstrated the navy’s ability to generate ... more ...

Don’t say we haven’t been warned The Spectator. Dimitri Burshtein. 7 May 2022. The recently signed security pact between the Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China is a shot across Australia’s bow. It warrants a thorough reassessment of security strategies and policies ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Conrad Crane. 9 May 2022. At the turn of the 20th century, Polish Jewish banker Ivan Bloch compiled a detailed analysis of the potential effects of war between major powers. He saw a world of interconnected economies with vast industrial ... more ...

The world looks very different when viewed from the North Pole. Dr Pippa Malmgren’s Post 18 April 2022 We see the Finns moving their tractors to the border with Russia and banning all vehicles with Russian ... more ...

Organizations and people who can rapidly and effectively adapt are more likely to prevail. USNI Proceedings. Captain Gerard Roncolato, U.S. Navy (Retired). May 2022. ... more ...

Destruction of critical infrastructure by long-range precision strikes has become the Russian Navy’s newest mission. Proceedings, May 2022. Commander Joshua Menks, U.S. Navy, and Michael B. Petersen ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Lesley Seebeck. 4 May 2022. The early days in any great undertaking can be chaotic. The AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States was announced last September, and it may be a little premature to worry about ... more ...

Watching Russian setbacks in Ukraine, Washington eyes expanded fuel storage in Japan Nikkei Asia. Ryo Nakamura. 4 May, 2022. WASHINGTON – The U.S. ... more ...

SMH. Peter Hartcher. 3 May 2022. Beijing may have established the political foundation for a military base in Solomon Islands, but Australia has options for responding. Other than fuming and threatening. Australian politicians like to call the South Pacific region “Australia’s backyard”. So what do you do if the tendril ... more ...

War On The Rocks. David Finkelstein. 2 May 2022. Among those observing the Russian military’s ongoing operations in Ukraine, few will be watching and assessing its performance more intensely than those in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Analysing the wars of other countries ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Peter Jennings. 28 Apr 2022. Australia’s Pacific security problem is simple: we’re not thinking big enough about our role and we have convinced ourselves that we’re incapable of moving quickly to counter China. Canberra policymaking has dumbed down. Note how big ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Brahma Chellaney. 28 Apr 2022. When the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue was first conceived as a strategic coalition of the Indo-Pacific’s four leading democracies, many doubted that it would amount to much. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi mocked it as a ‘headline-grabbing ... more ...

A naval base in Equatorial Guinea would be a calamity for Washington Nikkei Asia. Liam Gibson. 30 April 2022. How ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Andrew Davies. 28 Apr 2022 Just for a change, there’s a bit of heat around discussions of the future of armour and surface ships. I thought ASPI analyst William Leben’s recent Strategist piece was a good one in its attempt to ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. David Shackleton . 28 Apr 2022. In 2009, Australia’s government decided that it would replace eight Anzac-class frigates with nine ships optimised for antisubmarine warfare (ASW). There was no justification in the Royal Australian Navy capstone doctrine for acquiring and optimising ... more ...

Spectator. Christopher Blattman. 26 April 2022. As horror mounts over Russia’s war crimes, the clamour for Vladimir Putin to be held to account is growing. Joe Biden has accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine and has labelled the Russian president a ‘war criminal’. ... more ...

Quadrant. Peter Smith. 27 April 2022. _AP News flash, April 27, 2036: The longstanding president of the Independent Republic of Western Australia (IRWA), Mark McGowan, has announced his government’s intention to sign a security pact with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Western Australia ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Andrew Goodman. 26 April 2022. Observers commonly describe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a reckless gamble. But the Putin I came to know in St. Petersburg during the early 1990s was not a gambler in the classic sense, much less a ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. James Jeffrey. 19 Apr 2022. Once better known for its distinctive style of making potent coffee and its gelatinous confectionary cubes called Turkish Delight, these days Turkey is making a name for itself through a more deadly means: as a major ... more ...

In Sydney, the NWOA will form up in Castlereagh Street between Hunter Street and Martin Place at 0915. We will be positioned astern of the Naval Association and ahead of YARRA. The march is expected to step off at 0930. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Paul Greenfield and Jon Stanford. 13 Apr 2022. Since the British Type 26 was announced as the reference design for Royal Australian Navy’s nine Hunter-class frigates, the program has been controversial. The recent leaked report on the system design review was ... more ...

All wars are forever when you don’t know what you’re fighting for. Front Page. 17Aug 2021. Daniel Greenfield. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. “Afghanistan’s collapse: ... more ...