By Robbin Laird The latest Williams Foundation Seminar was held on March 30, 2023 in Canberra. It was entitled “Sharpening the Edge of Australia’s National Deterrence Capability” and focused on the strategic transition of Australia and the ADF in meeting the challenges of the decade ahead. I asked one of…
By Robbin Laird Currently I am in Canberra, Australia to participate in the latest Williams Foundation Seminar for which I write the reports. While visiting, I have the opportunity to discuss strategic issues with a number of analysts and officials while here. This year is noticeable for the coming defence…
By Robbin Laird Dr. Harald Malmgren has described what he and his colleague see as a strategic shift in China associated with the next phase of President Xi’s leadership. The shift from an export-oriented growth economy which is deeply intertwined with the developments in the Western world to one more…
By Robbin Laird The recently concluded Party Congress in Communist China has both consolidated Xi’s control of the Chinese system and turned the country further from its earlier legacy of global engagement built on its powerful export engine. According to my colleague, Dr. Harald Malmgren, Chinese policy under Xi has…
"Retired army general, Petr Pavel, has been elected the next president of Czechia. Mr. Pavel won the runoff against former prime minister Andrej Babiš, by the biggest margin ever in the history of Czech presidential elections. With all votes counted, Petr Pavel got over 58.3 percent of the vote, his…
By Robbin Laird Of the four Nordic countries, Sweden faces the longest journey towards a new regional defense approach — but also has an opportunity to undergo significant, smart transformation for a modern era that sees it finally join the NATO alliance. It has the longest journey due to its…
In our 2013 book on Pacific defense., we argued that Japan would expand its defense perimeter in response to Chinese and Russian evolving defense and foreign policies. We argued that they would take advantage of U.S. defense modernization programs, notably the Osprey and the F-35 programs, to do so. We…
By Robert Czulda Looking back before the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, few had assumed that the Kremlin would make such a lunatic move. Then when Russian tanks and aircraft openly violated Ukraine's sovereignty, few believed that the Ukrainians would be able to repel the attack. But they did and…
