ARTICLES
Peace requires real action, not gestures
The Australian Government's planned recognition of Palestine outside negotiations with Israel seriously impedes Australia's ability to engage with and influence the Jewish state, a state we helped found. It gives us the appearance of clueless dilettantes. Hamas...
The Ambassador Series: a grumpy strategist meets a high energy Ukrainian Ambassador
The Ambassadors Series - a Grumpy Strategist meets | RSS.com Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko speaks with a grumpy strategist about his path from business to diplomacy, & the surreal experience of families - including his - like fighting in the Russian...
Episode 48: Grumpy But Grand Strategy – Australia’s Two Pillars are both in trouble
Episode 48: Grumpy But Grand Strategy - Australia' | RSS.com Before Dr Hellyer jets off to Samoa, the Grumpy Strategists go Grand - Australian grand strategy looked at through its two enduring pillars of: 1. economic prosperity by mainlining into China's economy, and...
Australia should push for alliance treaty with Japan
Two decades of bipartisan effort to deepen defence ties with Japan made it possible to select the Mogami-class frigate for our navy. This is not just the right technical choice, it’s a big step forward in relations with Tokyo. Do not underestimate what has...
Japan’s frigate win: Australia gets a strategic industrial partner; Japan gets a bucket of Australian risks
Japan’s Mogami class frigate bid has beaten the German alternative to win the Australian Navy’s general purpose frigate project, which has a budget over the ten years covered in Defence’s investment plan of some $10 billion (with more required beyond that to deliver...
Australia can trust Beijing – to reach right into Australian society
Prime minister Albanese just got back from his fourth meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping telling us he’s established a strong personal relationship with China’s leader. His leadership meetings have apparently built mutual respect and trust. But it turns out...
Episode 47 Ground truthing Australia’s drone journey & the UK’s military & industrial base
Episode 47 Ground truthing Australia's drone journ | RSS.com The Grumpy Strategists drill into the facts behind Australian Govt announcements on drones to find disappointment: celebrating $16.9m on counter drone systems while spending $11m per day on AUKUS puts things...
Australia and the UK put the AUKUS spin cycle on High
So, is what we’ve just heard about the strength of Australian-UK relations and commitment to AUKUS fabulous news that reduces the risks and problems built into the nuclear sub pact? No. Does the new 50-year treaty, named after Geelong, a town in...
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...