The 2020 Defence Strategic Update released by the Morrison government on 1 July concluded that Australia’s strategic environment is deteriorating – and deteriorating faster than was anticipated in the 2016 Defence White Paper. This grim finding, with warnings “coercion, competition and grey-zone activities directly or indirectly targeting Australian interests are occurring now”, has been widely accepted, punctuated as it is by a low point in Australia’s bilateral relationship with China.
