Insights - Defence Connect

22 Jan 2020

National resilience v national security? Understanding increasingly blurry distinctions

Rising nation-state competition, global and domestic economic headwinds and stagnation, asymmetric threats and environmental challenges are all servin...

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22 Jan 2020

Potential flashpoints in the 2020s: Overlapping contestation, governance and environmental crises

As we hit the start of the 2020s with a burning thud, strategists, economists and national security pundits have been crystal balling what the decade ...

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21 Jan 2020

Responding to the age of disruption by asking the difficult questions

Rising great power competition, mounting national debt, automation, economic instability and climate change are all serving to undermine the traditi...

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21 Jan 2020

Congress debates how to best deter China – beyond nuclear weapons

Amid growing concerns in US Congress about America’s capacity to deter an increasingly assertive China, Congress has kicked off a review of how the...

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20 Jan 2020

Enhancing the value of northern Australia in the era of great power competition

Executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, has called on Australia’s leaders to place more value on northern A...

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17 Jan 2020

Concerns grow about impact of US-China trade deal on Aussie economic stability

It looks like the US-China trade spat is finally coming to an end as the two great powers sign off on the first phase of a new trade deal, with many b...

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17 Jan 2020

Germany turns back on EU, shifting to protect local defence industry

European powerhouse Germany has rocked the boat following a Dutch company securing a US$6.7 billion shipbuilding deal for the German Navy, forcing a ...

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16 Jan 2020

Sorry Hewson, you’re wrong: The ADF’s primary role is to defend the nation, not disaster response

Former Liberal opposition leader John Hewson has issued a rallying cry to see the ADF mobilised to address the nation’s “greatest security threat...

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15 Jan 2020

$80bn future submarine program runs aground, again

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has released a scathing review into the nation’s largest defence program – the $80 billion Attack Cla...

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15 Jan 2020

Preparing the nation for a truly sovereign naval shipbuilding capability

2020 is shaping up to be a big year for the government’s $95 billion Naval Shipbuilding Program. As the multibillion-dollar Arafura Class and Hunter...

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14 Jan 2020

Going it alone: White proposes confronting reality for Australia’s strategic future

Hugh White has called for Australia’s strategic and political leaders to envisage a world where the nation will be required to embrace its national ...

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14 Jan 2020

US Navy leadership refuses to accept ‘hollow force’ in face of future challenges

As the US Navy pursues its goal of 355 ships, acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly has stressed the importance of maintaining the qualitative edg...

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13 Jan 2020

The growing importance of morals in foreign and defence policy

In a world of growing ‘grey areas’, the often ‘black and white’ of morality is not as distinct – political and hybrid warfare and embolden...

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13 Jan 2020

Australia’s precarious energy grid undermines national security

Bushfires, heat waves and a decaying energy generation and transmission system is increasingly undermining Australia’s national security, the econo...

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10 Jan 2020

Singapore approved for F-35B acquisition as tensions in SE Asia continue to brew

While the conversation about Australia’s purchase of the short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) ‘B’ variant of the F-35 periodically rears its...

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10 Jan 2020

Understanding the continuing and concerning vulnerability of commercial airliners

Following revelations that a civilian airliner departing Tehran was accidentally shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile killing a number of in...

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9 Jan 2020

US think tank calls for ‘fundamental reshape’ of US surface fleet to defeat Chinese threat

The US-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has launched a new report revealing the growing need for what it defines as a “fundament...

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9 Jan 2020

Aussie Iraq training mission likely casualty of rising US-Iran hostilities

Australia’s long-running mission in Iraq seems about to end, not by a choice of the Australian government to disengage at the natural conclusion of ...

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8 Jan 2020

South China Sea contest heats up as Indonesia joins growing anti-Beijing coalition

The 2020s have gotten off to a rough start as China’s increasingly assertive position and ambitions in the South China Sea have drawn attention from...

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