By Michael Shoebridge*
It’s time to upend the idea of a ‘balanced force’ in Australian defence policy.
Defence leaders have talked for decades about the 60,000-person ADF as a balanced force, with a little bit of something to do many things.
Why break away from it now? Well, as economist Paul Samuelson said, ‘When events change, I change my mind.’ Since the government’s 2016 defence white paper, we’ve seen events that change the balanced force equation.