ARTICLES
Australian crewing on US Navy’s own subs: Canberra’s AUKUS lever
There’s been plenty of criticism and consternation about reports Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon official running the Trump Administration’s AUKUS review, had asked for some kind of commitment about Australian involvement if there were a conflict with China over Taiwan....
Grumpy Strategist Makers Series – with Beaten Zone’s Steve Baxter
Grumpy Strategist Makers Series - with Beaten Zone | RSS.com One Grumpy Strategist talks with Beaten Zone Venture Partners boss Steve Baxter. They set out Steve's journey from the Army to business success in the tech world, to now running an outfit all about investing...
Oh dear, what have you done to my fleet!? & Is Australia now bandwagoning AND free-riding??
Oh dear, what have you done to my fleet!? & Is Aus | RSS.com The Grumpies go over an Audit report revealing the comprehensive, systemic failures of Defence, the Navy and its contractors to maintain and operate the Navy's two biggest ships. The obvious question is how...
We’re letting Xi Jinping weaponise economics all over again
So, prime minister Albanese is in China for his fourth meeting with Xi Jinping, accompanied by a large Australian business delegation. We hear from the government that now they have ‘stabilised the relationship’ with Beijing, it’s time to grow our two way...
What could Anthony Albanese be saying about Taiwan & regional security on his China trip?
Senior figures in the Trump Administration are asking if Australia is committed to deterring Beijing from invading Taiwan and have made their request public. And our prime minister is tying himself up in knots trying not to answer. He doesn’t want to say...
PM doesn’t get it, but Curtin knew we needed the US
Anthony Albanese’s wildly inaccurate take on John Curtin’s war would fail as an undergraduate essay. Curtin’s defiance of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt to bring Australian troops home from the Middle East did not win the war or create an independent...
There’s nothing behind the prime minister’s Curtin
Anthony Albanese has used a speech about our wartime prime minister John Curtin to assert Australia’s independence on security from America, right when our relations with Trump’s America and Xi Jinping’s China are both complicated and difficult. His speech will be...
From Warfare to Lawfare
The ongoing Iran-Israel war will soon transition into international lawfare. The Security Council will hold a high-level open debate on peace and security on 22 July, chaired by Pakistan, which can hardly be regarded as neutral. Back home, the ABC’s news and current...
How to lose an alliance: PM’s shrinking ambition
"It’s past the point that the failure of Donald Trump and the Prime Minister to meet face-to-face can be put down to diary difficulties. Anthony Albanese will not go to Washington – and it’s clear Trump is playing him." Ernest Hemingway famously asked: “How did you go...
Trouble in the Navy’s material world is trouble for Australia’s security – & AUKUS
The Navy is systematically failing to manage and maintain the two largest ships in its fleet – the 27,000 tonne LHD amphibious ships HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide. The scale of the troubles is laid out in a 108 page national audit office report, with almost...
Someone is telling China’s story well, but it’s not Ambassador Xiao
Beijing’s representative in Australia, Ambassador Xiao Qian, has just spent 900 words in an article this week telling us we should not spend more on defence because he says so and because China is no threat. But in all his words the ambassador fails to mention...
Is Australia willing to pay the costs of unthethering from America?
As we watch Donald Trump’s unpredictable America bomb Iran, and see Xi Jinping building his military to conquer Taiwan by force (if and when he so decides), plenty of familiar voices are saying now is the time to cut the cord with America and chart a new independent...
Richard Marles and Australia’s defence ‘quality’ problem
Why didn’t Richard Marles explain to Donald Trump and the other 31 leaders of NATO nations that they don’t need to invest more in their nations’ defence to deal with an aggressive Russia enabled by China? Instead, they only need to focus on the quality of their...
The Autonomous Revolution: How Australia can transform defence through maritime robotics
On May 28, 2025, Michael Shoebridge, Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, and I travelled to Melbourne, Australia to visit C2 Robotics which is described on its website as follows: “C2 Robotics specialises in the rapid development of cutting edge robotics and...
Needy, dismissive and critical: Australia & the US allliance
The Albanese government’s relationship with the US Trump Administration is a mix of contradictions–needy, dismissive and critical. It’s hard to see this as working well for either nation right now, and the US probably cares less about this than we do. The personality...
Iran strikes show the growing gap between Canberra and Washington
The Albanese government is finding it hard to come to terms with the way the world works now and that’s particularly obvious in its approach to Washington under Trump. But it’s also means the government is caught flatfooted when important things happen – like...
Australia falls behind as Trump Doctrine reshapes the strategic landscape
The coming week may be the most important yet in Donald Trump’s presidency. It will be the decisive moment for a US military strike on Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facilities. Or not: Trump may choose to hold fire. On that decision hangs the tenuous future of Iran’s...
Cancelled Trump meeting a relief to PM Albanese, but bad news for Australian security
So, Donald Trump has cancelled his planned meeting with Anthony Albanese – along with the chats he was to have had with other like India’s Narendra Modi because his priority right now is what’s happening in the war between Israel and Iran. Fair enough from Mr Trump’s...
No hiding the gap between rhetoric and reality on spending
The Australian government has wedged itself on defence. The glaring gulf between its rhetoric around our strategic circumstances and its defence funding commitments have been called out by our great and powerful ally. It’s no longer just domestic analysts...
India has vital role in Pacific region disaster response
The 2024 National Defence Strategy described India as a top-tier security partner for Australia. It said that we would look for opportunities with India to drive practical bilateral and multilateral co-operation. It’s therefore surprising that we haven’t started...
The AUKUS emergency episode: What-the-Hell-Just Happpppppened? The Trump Review that’s what.
The AUKUS emergency episode: What-the-Hell-Just Ha | RSS.com With the UK Eurovision entry "What-the-Hell-Just Happpppppened??" fitting Australia's reaction to the Trump AUKUS review, Marcus and Michael discuss the two Oz views: "PANIC it's over!!!!" & 'There's...
AUKUS reviews can’t hide the challenges facing submarine pipelines and politics
It’s been an eventful couple of weeks in AUKUS submarine land. The event that made the biggest splash, at least in Australia, was the United States’ announcement that Under Secretary for Defense Policy Elbridge Colby would lead a review of AUKUS ‘to ensure it aligns...
Five steps to fix AUKUS – and a viable defence plan B
The Albanese government’s handling of AUKUS has been lazy, half-hearted and inattentive. The good news? If the PM really wants to salvage this mess, he can. Defence Minister Richard Marles says he’s “very confident” AUKUS is on track. Confidence, however, is no...
Common defence Myth Takes, North Korean real estate, & UK defence review echoes Oz
Common defence Myth Takes, North Korean real estat | RSS.com Back from teaming with Dennis Rodman to help Kim Jong Un fix his naval troubles, the Grumpies get into myth busting on defence spending & on drones. They examine 6 common Myth Takes on defence spending...
Putting Australia first in the AUKUS review
So, the US is reviewing the AUKUS sub deal to align it with Donald Trump’s America First approach and to ensure Australia and the UK are stepping up on collective defence. As America does this review, Australia should take a fresh look too, so we know what we...
Australia and ‘stable nuclear deterrence’ – catching up with a changed world
Heralds of a new nuclear age are everywhere. Commentators point to the decline of relationships among the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council—the exclusive great-power club which previously constituted the main ballast of the nuclear world—and the...
A Grumpy Strategist meets Taiwan’s Australian rep: world health, regional security, economics & trade – Episode 43
A Grumpy Strategist meets Taiwan's rep in Australi | RSS.com Taiwan's representative in Australia, Douglas Hsu, talks with a Grumpy Strategist about the 2025 World Health Assembly, now as a time to reinforce multilateral & international organisations, and paths to...
Albanese, Trump and defence: if self-interest isn’t enough, get ready for unthinkables
As Anthony Albanese’s election euphoria fades, the hard work of his second term has begun. And there’s probably not much that’s more difficult than navigating his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G7 in Alberta Canada. Mr Trump demonstrated his lack...
Albanese about to get brutal lesson in great power politics
Pete Hegseth, the tough-talking US Secretary of Defence, has “conveyed” to Richard Marles “that Australia should increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP as soon as possible”. A “readout” of this meeting was released by the US Department of...
The two factors playing on Albanese’s mind over Trump meeting
Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump will happen in Alberta, Canada, at the mid-June G7 meeting. It would be astonishing if Albanese didn’t go on to visit Trump in Washington DC. In the past, Australian prime ministers and US...