By Robbin Laird This article is the convergence point of several analytical projects I have pursued in recent years: the breakdown of the post–Cold War order and the global war in Ukraine, the reconfiguration of power across key middle states such as Australia and Brazil in the shadow of China’s…
By Robbin Laird My 2026 framework Mastering Chaos begins from a premise that most leadership literature still refuses to accept: traditional crisis management is not merely inadequate. It is actively dangerous. It was designed for a world of isolated, slow-moving systems with slack built into every layer. That world no…
By Robbin Laird When Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin is “a reality” and “a valuable computer science tool, as a power projection,” he did more than offer an off‑the‑cuff comment on a fashionable technology. He signaled that at least one major combatant commander now…
By Robbin Laird The Royal Australian Navy is crossing a dangerous bridge. On one side sits the fleet it has today: three Hobart‑class air warfare destroyers, a diminishing number of Anzac‑class frigates, and a support structure increasingly strained by the weight of strategic demand. On the other side sits the…
By Robbin Laird In every sector today, leaders are discovering the same uncomfortable truth: they can no longer plan their way through genuine chaos. The familiar script, stabilize the crisis, restore normal, move on, no longer fits a world where disruption is constant, tightly coupled, and accelerating. Mastering Chaos is…
By Robbin Laird The Royal Australian Navy is crossing a dangerous bridge. On one side sits the force it has today, three Hobart-class air warfare destroyers, a diminishing number of Anzac-class frigates, and a support structure increasingly strained by the weight of strategic demand. On the other side sits the…
By Robbin Laird The Royal Australian Navy is entering a decade defined not simply by modernization, but by transition. The fleet is moving from an aging force structure built around Hobart-class destroyers and Anzac-class frigates toward a future force of Hunter-class frigates, new general-purpose frigates, upgraded destroyers, and eventually a…
By Robbin Laird Before a nation asks what threats it faces or what allies expect, it should ask a prior and more fundamental question — what are our genuine strategic advantages, and what force design maximizes them? That framing is right. It is also not new. The same foundational question…
