by Michael Shoebridge | Sep 15, 2025 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Featured, Policy
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 around the 3.5 per cent...
by Michael Shoebridge | Sep 10, 2025 | Featured, Policy
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 officially entered the age...
by Michael Shoebridge | Sep 8, 2025 | China, Indo Pacific, Ukraine
Back in the days of the Roman Empire, during parades in their honour Roman commanders used to have someone standing behind them whispering ‘Remember you are mortal’ to prevent the pomp and pageantry going to their heads. So, as Xi Jinping watched his massed...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Sep 1, 2025 | Podcasts, Policy, Ukraine
Europe’s lessons in dealing with unreliability, ex | RSS.com In Episode 49, Marcus and Michael go over the lessons for Australia from Europe’s approach to dealing with an unreliable US over the war in Ukraine. They discuss the now disturbing centralisation...
by Michael Shoebridge | Jul 26, 2025 | AUKUS, Indo Pacific, Policy, Strategy & Capability
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....
