War in the Indo-Pacific: China, the DSR and the Future of the Australian Military

Australia stands at the precipice. The Indo-Pacific is now entering the most dangerous strategic period since the Second World War. The People’s Republic of China has embarked in the greatest peacetime military expansion, especially in the maritime domain, seen anywhere since the 1910s. And just as that militarization generated the geopolitical tensions that led to the Great War, exceptionally dangerous Sino-American competition is the defining feature of both Australia’s region and our time.

The Australian military’s reaction to this dynamic and rapidly deteriorating strategic environment had been highly problematic. Dysfunctional platform acquisition and development has been made worse by a convoluted grand strategy which has been far too focused on the rather mundane problems of the prior strategic epoch, as opposed to the extremely dangerous situation the nation was now facing. The result of this dysfunction is the Defence Strategic Review and the new strategic doctrine of National Defence. This comprehensive reform of the ADF has profound implications for the wider Australian military, including the largest expansion of the Royal Australian Navy since the second world war.