PODCAST: Australia needs to rethink defence strategy, with Dr Ross Babbage

Joint-capabilities
|
By: Robyn Tongol

In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, host Steve Kuper is joined by Dr Ross Babbage, CEO of Strategic Forum and senior non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, host Steve Kuper is joined by Dr Ross Babbage, CEO of Strategic Forum and senior non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The pair discuss a range of subjects following Babbage’s recent trip to the United States, including:

  • Australia’s need to prepare for a more direct involvement in kinetic regional conflict in the Indo-Pacific – including recognising that we are no longer on the periphery of geopolitical competition.
  • The multidimensional depth and facets of the challenges being posed by the People’s Republic of China: Babbage emphasises that China’s strategy includes economic coercion, hybrid conflict and soft power, and that Western assumptions about China's integration leading to liberalisation have proven wrong.
  • How Western governments have failed to effectively communicate the strategic risks to their populations: Babbage argues that public awareness is essential for national resilience and policy support, and that many in the public are willing to act once properly informed.
  • Australia’s urgent need to expand and rethink its defence and industrial capabilities to meet the growing expectations of the new US Trump administration.

Enjoy the Podcast,
The Defence Connect team

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Defence Connect a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Defence Connect as a preferred news source.

Tags:

Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: PODCAST: Defence export ambitions, drone technology and defence manufacturing hubs
Episode 10: PODCAST: Offshore manufacturing, defence procurement and industrial resilience, with Philippe Odouard and David McLaughlin
Episode 9: SPOTLIGHT: Cyber warfare, autonomy and the future of defence, with Palo Alto Networks’ Tom Scully and MAJGEN (Ret’d) John Davis
Episode 8: CONTESTED GROUND: Fortune favours the bold – building a national security strategy for the 21st century, with Marc Ablong
Episode 7: PODCAST: Developing Australia’s ability to take a hit and keep fighting, with the honourable Andrew Hastie MP, shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability
Episode 6: PODCAST: AUKUS expansion, artillery manufacturing and Australia’s regional defence role
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Building mass, capability and trust with autonomous and uncrewed systems, with Michael Mitchell, Elysium EPL director
Episode 4: PODCAST: Defence policy, domestic manufacturing and military culture, with Senator Malcolm Roberts
Episode 3: SPOTLIGHT: LAND 156, counter-drone warfare and electronic warfare capability, with Department 13’s Ben Westgarth
Episode 2: PODCAST: Australia’s first 3D printed autonomous USV, with Josh Wigley and Harry Hubbert