As an early RAN submission to the former Force Structure Committee’s strategic policy consideration of the ANZAC frigate put it so breathlessly, ‘Australia is an island continent surrounded by sea’. The pleonasm notwithstanding, the proposition’s …
This week’s Sea State looks at some of the key ideas that emerged from ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet conference, held last week in Canberra. The two-day event brought together a high-powered line-up of local and …
Andrew Davies and Benjamin Schreer argue in their recent ASPI report on Australia’s submarine choice that there is a stronger strategic case for acquiring Japanese submarines than European ones (Option J). But the opposite could …
One of the advantages of modern technology is that it offers good access to distant conferences. Internet users already have access, for example, to a mixture of transcripts, audio files and videos from the Carnegie …
In their paper supporting Option J, Andrew Davies and Benjamin Schreer don’t just rebut some of the strategic arguments raised against it, but also provide their own argument on strategic grounds in its favour. Their …
The Strategist team is taking a break over the Easter long weekend until next Tuesday. Until then, put your feet up and enjoy this week’s blog posts including commentary and analysis from our international conference Future …
(Or how I learned to stop worrying about naval power and to love the corvette.) Naval capability decisions start with maritime strategy. So I think we should get one. That’s deliberately provocative, but I struggle …
ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet Conference kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. Opening the conference, ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings lamented the hardline politics of shipbuilding in …
In 1890 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published his influential geostrategic masterpiece, The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783. Mahan’s understanding of naval power and its intimate links to economic security was based on his …
This week’s Sea State will examine some of the more prominent debates to arise from Australia’s Future Submarine Summit, the most recent forum to hold informed discussion on the trajectory of SEA 1000: the largest …
There’s a lot of talk about submarines again this week thanks to the SubSummit conference in Adelaide. Perhaps not surprisingly given the venue, much of the focus was on the local versus offshore build aspect. …
Karl Claxton has done an admirable job sustaining logical and informed debate on the future of the Australian Army on The Strategist. His most recent piece, Armour, Army and Australia’s future strategy corrals a number …