The 2023 defence strategic review has been broadly welcomed across the Australian strategic policy commentariat. (The Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Strategist.) The reasons for that, and the analysis of what it means, however, are oddly diverse. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles in his opening statement frames it as ‘the most ambitious review of Defence’s posture and structure since the Second World War’. Some commentators have agreed, arguing that it represents ‘the boldest statement of Australian strategic policy in many decades’.
