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

Joint-capabilities
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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

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Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: THE PROGRESS REPORT: From the cockpit to the dockyard
Episode 10: PODCAST: Iran escalation, munitions supplies and the Middle East’s path to peace
Episode 9: SPOTLIGHT: Cyber security, DISP accreditation and building sovereign resilience, with Macquarie Government’s James Rabey
Episode 8: PODCAST: Warrior culture, special operations and private military companies, with Trevor Fortner
Episode 7: CONTESTED GROUND: We’re no longer in a BAU world, with Andrew Henderson, Agsecure
Episode 6: PODCAST: Small arms modernisation, next-generation infantry systems and sovereign manufacturing
Episode 5: THE PROGRESS REPORT: 10 seconds of courage and the ripple effect of mentorship
Episode 4: PODCAST: Defence industrial investment, Ghost Bat upgrades and Indonesia’s Gaza deployment
Episode 3: PODCAST: ADF space personnel, US Secretary of Defense cuts Harvard ties and Sydney protest fallout
Episode 2: THE PROGRESS REPORT: From Army engineering to the C-suite – breaking the glass ceiling in Defence

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