The multi-billion dollar expenditure on nuclear powered submarines as part of the AUKUS pact has attracted some attention. Perhaps it helps to provide historical context if it is remembered that Australia’s first submarines were of limited use in the defence of our shorelines. My four times great grandfather William Eckford from North Ayrshire was a Continue reading »
Defence and Security
The mass media got itself into a flap this week (28, 29 Feb & 1 March) over ASIO Director, Mike Burgess’ claim that a former Australian politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues” after being recruited by spies of a foreign regime. “Name the traitor,” former Treasurer and former Ambassador to the US, Continue reading »
Last Tuesday Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the Albanese government’s plans to overhaul the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) ageing surface fleet. The new ‘enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet’ will more than double the amount of main surface vessels the RAN will operate, but their usefulness in ensuring Australian security is dubious. This plan will fulfill Continue reading »
As opposition to AUKUS grows, the nuclear submarine project does not stand up to expert scrutiny. There is no doubt that opposition to the AUKUS agreement is growing within the Australian public. The more people see through the secrecy and obfuscation; the more they learn about the project’s far-reaching implications for them and the nation, Continue reading »
The Australian government has decided to ignore critics of Aukus in parliament and the community. Rather it has moved to embed the idea of Aukus directly into the Australian psyche. We Australians consider ourselves a straightforward lot. We prefer to speak our minds simply and honestly. We do not readily embrace ideas such as weapons Continue reading »
Why, when the majority of civil society opposes Australia going to war against China, and public confidence in the United States’ will and capacity to defend Australia is declining, do successive governments pursue AUKUS and a war with China over Taiwan with such enthusiasm? The daily spillage from government and media delivers so little reliable Continue reading »
Thucydides has Pericles, the great Athenian statesman and strategist, observe that “Mastery of the sea is no small matter”. The Defence Minister should have been mindful of Pericles’ words as he launched the Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet (ELSCF). Or he might have recalled Pericles’ caution that “I am far more afraid of our own Continue reading »
The US senses that the clock is running rapidly down on its power. The question in Washington regarding war with China is not if, but when–and how. In many traditions, when you paint or sculpt a Buddha, the eyes are the very last part to be painted. It’s only after the eyes have been completed Continue reading »
The Ukraine invasion has thrown into sharp focus the massive failure of successive Australian government’s defence procurement programs to strengthen our military capability. A repost from March 11, 2022 With the Russian invasion in full swing and the collateral havoc of civilian casualties and mass evacuations before our eyes on TV it is premature to Continue reading »
A new world war is underway. For those living in developed countries, where gruesome battles remain mere headlines, it may not feel like the earth is burning, but in 2022 a total of 180 military conflicts (defined as resulting in 25 battle-deaths or more in that year) occurred worldwide. The final statistics for 2023 compiled Continue reading »