FEATURED ARTICLES
Trump the unilateralist becomes Trump the multilateralist – for now
After making a global mess, US President Donald Trump wants everyone else to clean it up. Luckily for the Albanese government – but also as a reward for their steadfast pursuit of a perfect, early 2000s-style small military sometime in the late...
With the Wedgetail deployment, Australia is now part of the Iran War
Is it believable that the world’s most advanced airborne early warning and control aircraft, the Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail, is going to be flying around in the Middle East but limited to only providing defensive information about...
The Iran war: Australia joins the “Coalescing of the Partly Willing”
A less needy more capable Australia – recognising the new American reality for allies
It’s time to notice big changes in our world when it comes to how Australia equips its military and spends the $59 billion annual defence budget. As ministers Marles and Conroy put the finishing touches to their brand new National Defence...
Iran War: bad guys, rose petals and donuts – Trump tries for the Big Maduro
Iran War: bad guys, rose petals and donuts - Trump | RSS.com Marcus and Michael reflect on their wisdom in modifying the Grumpies bunker to hold thousands of litres of diesel and 8 pallets of tinned tomatoes, as the war escalates in the Middle East....
The new Trump doctrine: ‘We break it, you own it’
America’s approach to the world has changed fundamentally. The era of its failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is over, along with the big idea behind them. That was then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s famous line “You break it, you own it”,...
Out with the old in with the new: Ambassador Rudd’s legacy and replacement
Kevin Rudd’s 3 years as Australian ambassador in Washington have shown he can ride rollercoasters and survive. In 3 short years, Kevin Rudd has had a box seat not available to any other Australian to watch the whiplashing changes in the US –...
Plumbing new depths in politics. And Chinese sub numbers & PLA purges – actually mindboggling
Plumbing new depths in politics. And Chinese sub n | RSS.com Marcus goes diving to try to find rock bottom in Australian political discourse, but has to come up for air. He at least found the curious case of a Canberra cafe that police found had put...
ISIS families: are we more afraid and less compassionate than we were in 2019?
How is it that Australians - and our political leaders across the spectrum - seem so afraid of 34 women and children who have been living in a camp in Syria for 6 years? And why do we lazily talk about them as “ISIS brides” when the majority...
Mindboggling! celebrating $30 billion on sub sheds (not actual subs), while leaders outdo One Nation’s darker instincts
Mindboggling! celebrating $30 billion on sub sheds | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists boggle at the sheer chutzpah of PM Albanese and State Premier Malinauskas announcing as a triumph spending $30 billion & taking until 2040 to build submarine...
History and Service tradition relevant to a modern military? Apparently they’re just costly and counterproductive….
You know a family is in trouble when they start flogging off the furniture to fund their lifestyle. First, it’s bits of the family silver and grandad’s stamp collection, then the holiday house. But as the trouble deepens, it’s mum’s jewels and then...
Australia’s Defence budget: a sugar hit followed by a $2.6 billion cut. Take that, Mr Trump, sir!
Australia's defence budget update: a sugar hit fol | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists pan for gold in 234 pages of dense, incoherent Government paperwork setting out the Albanese Government's revised plans for our nation's defence, and find some rather...
Defence’s 2025-26 budget update— billions spent earlier, but billions go out the back door
The Defence portfolio’s mid-year budget update, the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements (PAES), has dropped and will be discussed at upcoming Senate estimates hearings. The PAES is meant to disclose any changes to the funding picture since the...
The hunt for Defence reform downunder: Mr Conroy & the Yeti. And the mystery of sea control with a tiny fleet
The hunt for Defence reform downunder: Mr Conroy & | RSS.com Marcus & his fellow SES emergency volunteers hunt for the "Biggest Defence Overhaul in 50 years" somewhere deep in the Brindabellas (WARNING: parts of this episode contain disturbing...
Albanese meets Trump: champagne all round – but a harder meeting would’ve been better for Australian security & the alliance
Albanese meets Trump: champagne all round - but a | RSS.com The Grump Strategists move back into their renovated bunker deep in the Brindabellas and assess the finely managed Albanese-Trump meeting. Full marks to PM Albanese and Ambassador Rudd for...
Australian government prefers talking about defence funding over actually spending more.
The Trump administration has been calling on its partners and allies to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP. NATO has agreed to that benchmark, with another 1.5 per cent thrown in for vaguely defined national resilience and critical...
Sovereignty costs. If you won’t pay for it, you don’t have it
Sovereignty was once, fleetingly, the poster child of Australian defence policy and pronouncements. While it continues to be mentioned, it’s now in such a vague and superficial way that it has been emptied of meaning. This is a mistake. Sovereignty...
The Trump-Albanese meeting: Good news – he’s just not that into us
In the beating heart of this nation’s capital, Canberra, many of us have been thinking and rethinking about the Australia-US alliance and the AUKUS sub deal that is now so central to it. We’re reaching a crescendo as the long-awaited, much...
Team Albanese works hard to make Australia’s Defence budget LOOK ‘bigglier’
Mr Albanese has two choices on Australian defence spending as he prepares to meet US President Donald Trump in New York (hopefully, perhaps). He can increase Australia’s defence budget from its current 2 per cent share of GDP to somewhere...
The Age of Impunity: unilateral use of force damages us all
Anyone thinking the Israeli government’s strike on senior Hamas personnel in Qatar or the American government’s strike on a boat carrying 11 alleged Venezuelan drug runners in recent days is good news needs to think again. We have now...
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