By: Stephen Kuper
Just as the Cold War was characterised by a period of “Competitive Coexistence” between the United States and the Soviet Union, our new multipolar world embodies this in a significantly more complex way, presenting significant challenges for Australia and its “Fight Tonight” force.
Human history has been defined and, in many ways, characterised by the inescapable tension of competitive coexistence between humanity’s great kingdoms and empires.
This competitive coexistence has served to create some of the greatest rivals in history, from Greece and Persia to Rome and Carthage, Britain and France, Korea and Japan and, more recently, Germany and France, and the United States and Soviet Union, former allies who turned on one another driven by ideological differences and competing ambitions for the world.
However, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 and the dismantling of the “Evil Empire”, America emerged as the world’s sole superpower, unrivalled, giving rise to the real Pax Americana or American Peace, formalising the post-Second World War economic, political and strategic order established in the waning days of the conflict.
Fast forward nearly four decades and the heady days of the 1990s are now well and truly gone, with the emergence of not just one major power to contest the dominance of America, but multiple nations across the Indo-Pacific, Europe and South America of similar economic, political, strategic and demographic weight and potential.
This is now giving rise to a period of fractured, contested and competitive coexistence as the world’s established nations and emerging powers alike will increasingly grapple with and serve to reshape the way in which Australia and its allies across the Indo-Pacific, in particular, will need to improvise, adapt and overcome in record time.
At the forefront of this analysis is Robbin Laird, celebrated American military and security analyst and prolific author, in a piece titled Competitive coexistence in a fractured world order, Authoritarianism, and the kill web revolution, detailing the way this new era of multipolar competition is rapidly limiting the efficacy and capacity of Australia’s “Fight Tonight” force….
The Defence Imperatives of ‘Competitive Coexistence’
What does all this mean for Australia’s defence posture under competitive coexistence?
In practice, Canberra must pursue a middle path. It will continue deepening alliances (US, AUKUS, Quad, south-east Asia) because collective action amplifies deterrence. Yet it must retain enough autonomy to act if allies hesitate. Laird called this “strategic independence”, a deliberate build-up of credible capabilities so we are not entirely in another country’s pocket.
For Laird, key imperatives include:
- Readiness now (“Fight Tonight”) – prioritise proven, quickly deliverable systems (air defences, drones, cyber) over distant-future programs.
- Integrated kill webs – invest in distributed sensor-shooter networks, both domestically and with allies, rather than relying solely on big-ticket platforms.
- Industrial resilience – rebuild sovereign production (munitions, microelectronics, AI tools) so that Australia can mobilise in wartime without crippling imports.
- Allied ISR and support – embed Australian forces in multinational surveillance systems (space and cyber) as the backbone for targeting and situational awareness.
These steps acknowledge that we will be locked in competition with authoritarian powers for decades. It is not about appeasing them; it is about making conquest and coercion expensive and unlikely.
As Laird puts it, the goal is not to eradicate authoritarian regimes (an impossible task under nuclear deterrence and interdependence) but to manage the rivalry in a stable way – ensuring democracies like Australia maintain the credible force to defend their interests.
For the full article go to Defence Connect.