The wheels of government turn slowly but they do turn. Via Domainfax:
A group of former senior officials at the Department of Defence has issued a call for a “radical” overhaul of defence policy to confront the potential threats posed by a surging China and disrupted world order.
…”We’re seeing a redistribution of power across the region as a result of economic development, equalisation of technology and increased spending on defence,” said Brendan Sargeant, until recently an associate secretary at the Department of Defence and now honorary professor at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.
“That means our relative power is going to reduce over time unless we do something about it. If we want to maintain our position or respond to strategic risk, we’re probably going to have to spend more.”
…Paul Dibb, an emeritus professor at the ANU and former deputy secretary at Defence, said Australia faces “the prospect of a potential adversary – with whom we do not share values – operating in our neighbourhood and capable of threatening us with high intensity conflict”.
Spot on. It’s now all about hedging bets: militarily, politically and economically.
