Although the militaries of the industrial West certainly are interested in and in some cases actively pursuing new forms of energy sources to operate their forces, clearly defense needs to operate with fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. But a EURACTIV story highlights a warning from the Swedish military that…

By Robbin Laird In our recently released book entitled The Return of Direct Defense: Meeting the 21st Century Authoritarian Challenge, we highlighted that the focus of European defense was emerging as nations with defense capabilities oriented to operate integrated operations as “coalitions of the willing.” There is no single defense…

By Robbin Laird On December 31, 2020, the Australian Department of Defence published an article by Flight Lieutenant Natalie Giles which highlighted a ceremony remembering one contributor to the small ship's role in World War II. Former World War II Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force telephonist Thelma Zimmerman was presented…

By Robbin Laird Recently, I continued my discussion with Brendan Sargeant, the well-known and well-regarded Australian strategist about how best to understand the challenge posed by the regime of President Xi to Australia and the Indo-Pacific region. We focused on how he would characterize the nature and focus of the…

By Robbin Laird With the European Commission spearheaded a closer relationship with China, the gap -- not just geographical -- between Australia and Europe is clearly growing. My own recently published book on the evolution of Australian defence strategy highlights the shift from the away game to the home game…

In the release of the new Australian defensce strategy on July 1, 2020, Prime Minister Morrison highlighted the important role which Senator Jim Molan plays in his thinking about defence.. Recently, Senator Molan has launched a podcast series looking at the way ahead and how Australia might address the challenges…

By Peter Jennings Australia has a brilliant opportunity to shape US President-elect Joe Biden’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific in a way that will secure a major increase in American military power in the region. This will be a test of the Morrison government’s agility to move quickly to secure an…

By Robbin Laird I am in the throes of finishing up my book on the evolution of Australian defence strategy over the past several years, from 2014 until now. With the announcement of the new government defence strategy by Prime Minister Morrison on July 1, 2020, it seemed a good…