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: CONTESTED GROUND: Apathy, complacency and the ‘Lucky Country’, Australia’s predicament is entirely self-inflicted, with Ben Dullroy
Episode 10: SPECIAL EDITION PODCAST: 125 years of the Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army
Episode 9: CONTESTED GROUND: Australian resilience during a crisis and sovereign industrial capability
Episode 8: CONTESTED GROUND: From Tehran to Sydney – why war could reshape Australian property
Episode 7: SPOTLIGHT: Inside Australia’s AUKUS industrial transformation, with Honeywell Aerospace Australia senior director Lee Davis
Episode 6: CONTESTED GROUND: War without borders – the disinformation threat arriving in Australia
Episode 5: THE PROGRESS REPORT: The mission to make military children visible
Episode 4: PODCAST: Righting the ship, balancing the force, with Senator James Paterson, shadow minister for defence
Episode 3: SPOTLIGHT: Modern electronic warfare, spectrum congestion and the Australian defence ecosystem, with DEWC Services’ Rian Whitby
Episode 2: CONTESTED GROUND: The intersection of finance, organised crime, terrorism and foreign interference, with Keith Bulfin