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Analysis
When the missile is the message: China’s patient campaign to make the unacceptable routine
Opinion: In 1945, in the first free election Hungary had ever held, the communists lost, and badly. The Independent Smallholders’ Party took 57 per...
July 18 2026
ADIA 2026 Academic of the Year: Creating excellence in defence industry
You don’t have to be excellent to start, but you have to start to become excellent.
July 17 2026
2 navies, similar problems, different solutions: Following Canada’s submarine decision
Opinion: Canada’s Type 212CD submarine selection reinforces that modern naval procurement is about more than capability, highlighting the strategic and industrial...
July 16 2026
Slow learners: Doubling down and rolling out the red carpet for another potential adversary
Melbourne cheered a foreign political rally and called it diplomacy. If Beijing or even Washington had run the same playbook, we’d have called it foreign interference, so...
July 15 2026
Pax Australis: Towards an Australian hemisphere?
As great power competition returns, Australia faces a defining choice: remain a declining, middling middle power or embrace its potential as the strategic, political and...
July 14 2026
SDIP26 – mind the gaps: How to close them and not paper over them
Opinion: The 2026 Defence Industry Development Strategy improves the transparency of Australia’s Sovereign Defence Industrial Priorities but not the underlying framework...
July 13 2026
Don’t build your defence start-up in Queensland
Opinion: A year ago (June 2025), I wrote an article, Navigating the challenges of building a defence company in Queensland. Given some recent decisions by the Queensland...
July 10 2026
Australian Army reveals how they will support National Defence Strategy in new document
The Australian Army has backed its support for the 2026 National Defence Strategy in a new document outlining their contribution to the nationwide approach to the changing...
July 09 2026
Paperwork v missiles: Australia, China and neighbourhood security
Opinion: Australia’s Pacific security partnerships risk becoming little more than paperwork unless they’re backed by credible military power to deter China, warns...
July 08 2026
AIs are only human – so what can we do?
Opinion: Air Marshal (Ret’d) John Harvey AM argues that large language models will always remain fallible, making careful verification, appropriate tool selection, human...
July 07 2026
Australia’s zombie defence industry policy is rewarmed – the 2026 DIDS reinforces failure
Opinion: Strategic Analysis Australia’s Michael Shoebridge argues that the 2026 Defence Industry Development Strategy is a rehash of the failed 2024 version, criticising...
July 04 2026
What’s in a name? Battlelines drawn as patriotism becomes part of the political debate
Depending on who you ask, patriotism means different things to different people. It has different characteristics, priorities, objectives and “vibe”, with major...
July 03 2026
Hand thrown to drone dropped: Could Ukrainian tactics shape the Australian Defence Force’s next grenade?
New insights gleamed from the battlefields of Ukraine raise questions around the longevity of one of the Australian Defence Force’s oldest weapons, the humble and...
July 03 2026
AIs are only human
Opinion: LLM “errors” range from accidental to adversarial, each with a human-expert parallel – from the confidently wrong specialist to the outright censor. Knowing...
July 02 2026
Short-changed? British government releases initial details for £15bn ‘splurge’ on Defence capability
The outgoing British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has finally begun to release details about his prime ministerial swansong, the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan...
July 01 2026
Shots fired! Ex-British Defence chief issues stark warning, words of wisdom for incoming PM
With dust beginning to settle in Westminster’s halls of power, former British Defence chief, Admiral (Ret’d) Sir Tony Radakin has provided some timely advice about the...
June 30 2026
From aye, aye to AI: Why military judgement still matters
Opinion: Air Marshal (Ret’d) John Harvey AM asks a critical question as militaries around the world accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence: Can machines...
June 29 2026
The complicated dynamics of peace deals: US and Iran
As the history of most conflicts goes, peace deals, finalising wars and coming to common ground between fighting nations are long, drawn-out processes. All too often, these...
June 27 2026
Beyond experimentation: MQ-28 Ghost Bat spreads its wings on the world stage at Valiant Shield 2026
It’s fair to say that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat collaborative combat aircraft has been kicking some goals lately.
June 26 2026
Writing cheques our body can’t cash: Middle powers fall behind on ‘stabilising’ ambitions, capabilities
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared to the World Economic Forum that “middle powers” collectively need to lift their game to act in the interest of the...
June 24 2026