The late Coral Bell’s 2005 APSI paper ‘ Living with Giants, Finding Australia’s place ’ in a more complex world was prescient. The recently published 2020 Defence Strategic Update  and  2020 Force Structure Plan are contemporary policy responses to the geo-strategic circumstances foreseen by Bell 15 years ago. They address the risks to Australian security and national interests from changing power relativities and great power competition in the Indo-Pacific. Yet history teaches that effective deterrence …

Army’s vision of Accelerated Warfare heralds changes in war and international circumstances and directs members to discuss and debate ideas. Analysis published by ASPI , IFRS and AFA highlights changing geostrategic circumstances and environmental conditions to call for new approaches to defending Australia. Questions of force preparedness and scaling for unforeseen events loom large. Proposed roles for the Army range from securing offshore bases for naval and air forces, through regional constabulary …

The Coronavirus Pandemic The World Health Organisation warned that the ‘number of new daily cases worldwide had hit a new high on 07 June, a sign that the pandemic appeared to be worsening.’ South America is the new epicentre of the virus, Brazil has recorded over 70,000 cases to date (at the time of publishing). The global situation suggests a ‘return to normal’ is unlikely this year. The Pacific Islands remain largely free of the virus, igniting regional discussions about restarting the tourist industry …

A year ago, the Chief of Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, delivered a speech to ASPI’s War in 2025 conference that brought the terminology of political warfare to the fore. In reflection upon this speech, we focus this week upon the concept of Political Warfare in the context of today’s social disruption, which might be predicted to continue to manifest in coming months. To frame this conversation, we offer George Kennan’s famous telegram of 1946, which heralded the commencement of the Cold War with …

Innovation The US PACFLEET published video of a successful Solid State Laser test (destroying a UAV) from on-board the USS Portland in the Pacific Ocean, the first such use of a high-energy class solid-state laser ( the US Navy has operated laser weapons previously ). The weapon could be employed against UAV or small armed watercraft, or it could defend against attacks from land based missile systems, in which conventional defensive fires via intercept would usually be overwhelmed. In 2015, the program …

COVID19: Regional Geopolitical consequences Analysis is turning to the geopolitical shocks and changes that will follow the pandemic. The ASPI Strategist urges Australia to build on Defence relationships with Japan and South Korea to counter this expected great power tension. Foreign Policy concludes general war is unlikely, but warns stronger right-wing political movements could fuel protectionism and hyper-nationalism, inhibiting multilateral cohesion. On a hopeful note, New America offers a new …

In the future land force, close working relations with industry and the Australian business community will be more important than ever. Comparing the way military and business organisations work is a useful task for understanding organisational culture, and looking at how each organisation approaches leadership is a good place to start. I became interested in this comparison as I observed a recent leadership seminar with a class of mid-career business professionals. This was a group of energetic and clever …

This blog is part of a series on Quantum Technology and future land warfare, put out by the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO), a part of Future Land Warfare Branch tasked with coordination and de-confliction for Army's Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts in accordance with emerging disruptive technology. The trouble with quantum technology is that it seems impenetrable, improbable and impractical. In this post, I accordingly …

The future aiming mark for geospatial intelligence capabilities within Defence should be the creation of a Spatial Digital Twin: a single, dynamic dataset that represents the physical world in sufficient resolution to act as the reference point for all systems requiring mission data. As a phrase du jour there are currently many competing definitions of Digital Twin, but the most relevant to this concept being "a dynamic virtual representation of a physical object or system across its lifecycle, using …

This blog is part two of a two part series discussing the economic impacts on Defence in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.   Part One of this two-part series focussed on cost implications of a large currency depreciation for the military. It showed how these can increase the cost of maintaining capability at an increasing rate, and force difficult choices relating to allocation of scarce resources.   Part Two will now focus on the most important economic implication of the Covid-19 crisis for the …