ASPI: “Defence shouldn’t be spared when government pays off coronavirus debt”

In personally exciting news, my first piece was published in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Strategist blog on 1 May. In it I examined the impact of COVID-19 on the Department of Defence’s strategic planning and capability acquisitions.

I argue that the existing plans “have been overtaken by events”, and therefore it is “imperative that the government make a clear, convincing case to the public for why expenditure on the scale that Defence is undertaking remains strategically, and indeed morally, sound amid the health crisis and financial downturn”. Without this clearer justification of the available financial means, Defence will not be able to design realistic and achievable ways to achieve the government’s desired strategic ends.

Visit the Strategist for the full article.