Articles

Joanne Wallis: The report this week that China is in talks to build a military base in Vanuatu has generated consternation in Australia. Regardless of whether the report was accurate, it’s undeniable that China has significantly increased its aid to, and engagement with, the Pacific Islands.

Alastair Cooper: The need for Australia to have a navy (indeed an integrated defence force) to protect its supply routes is worth examining as part of a broader discussion about the nation’s changing strategic circumstances. There are contingencies in which ‘fortress Australia’ would no longer work. Modern global trading and communications systems mean that Australia has vulnerabilities that are located well north of the archipelago.

By Richard Menhinick* It’s time for Australia’s leaders to wean themselves off the overused and increasingly meaningless expression, ‘rules-based global order’. Australia’s strategic policy establishment is captured by the allure of this phrase.

By Matt Bartlett China’s activities in Vanuatu may have attracted scrutiny but its investment in military artificial intelligence has received less attention. The robots may not be coming for your jobs, but they are likely to be coming to an ocean near you.

Would ANZUS apply in a confrontation between the US and North Korea, Alison Pert asks?

Retired submarine specialist and past president of the Submarine Institute of Australia Peter Briggs takes a more detailed look at the search for AE1 and why it was successful.

By Dr Peter Layton* There’s a fundamental problem in Australia’s relationship with China: China’s growth advances prosperity but menaces security. If the rules-based order construct...

This is the speech by Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods, RANR, at the Australian Merchant Navy Day of Remembrance, 8 April 2018. The maritime history of Australia in peace and war has been until recently a largely neglected subject. Many Australians are just not ‘sea-minded’. Though our National Anthem mentions that we are “girt by sea” most Australians think of the country as being “girt by beach!” This national sea blindness has meant that after both world wars ended there was little collective memory of the scale of effort necessary to win the War at Sea.

The last episode of Season Two of the Australian Naval History video and podcast series has been released. It covers the bloody Battle of...

A crewman on HMAS Voyager who narrowly escaped from the wheelhouse of the ship before it sank in 1964 was intimidated into silence for more than half a century by a British naval officer who rose to become an admiral in the Royal Navy, the Guardian reports.