By Robbin Laird One of Brendan Sargeant’s legacy to me was introducing him to a young professor, Dr. Andrew Carr who works on defence issues and is well along in writing a book on the history of Australian defence. Given the enhanced focus on the direct defence of Australia being…

By Robbin Laird In my discussion with Marcus Hellyer, he highlighted the importance for Australia to prioritize the direct defense of Australia for the future evolution of the ADF. This is how he put it: “What is the Australian Defence Force (ADF) purpose-built for?” And here he posed what is…

By Robbin Laird I have recently arrived back in Australia after my last visit in March 2020. The pandemic gap years are now over and I have come to Australia as the new Labour government has launched a comprehensive defence review. Shortly after my arrival in Canberra, I had a…

By Robbin Laird On February 27, 2022, the German Chancellor announced a major re-set of German defense and security policy. On that date, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a €100 billion increase for defense procurement spending. This commitment was certainly welcomed by Germany’s allies, but the challenge of turning enhanced…

By Debalina Ghoshal A number of developments call for Australia not only to reply on defensive means to defend itself, but also rely on offensive capabilities like cruise missiles as part of its defense arsenal. Some of these developments are: North Korea’s ongoing missile development program, coupled with its nuclear…

The Nordics are both individually and collectively working to enhance their defense capabilities. In this article, we are highlighting recent press releases from Nordic Ministries of Defence as well as the UK MoD with regard to shaping a way ahead for Nordic defense. The Finnish Ministry of Defence highlighted Finnish…

Since 2014 with Russia seizing the Crimea, it is clear that President Putin has an agenda to expand Russia. The current Ukrainian-Russian war is in the next step. How can Europe and NATO best meet this challenge? BG (Retired) Preziosa ended our conversation by discussing the nature of the challenges…

By Thomas Wilkins On 8 July, the world was stunned by the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe during a campaigning speech in the city of Nara two days before elections were to take place. While domestic debates about improved security for politicians continue in Japan, it’s also…