Tony asks Hugh White: “If Australia did have nuclear weapons, what would the targets be?” #QandA
by Chris Becker
The recent public comments by Hugh White, that Australia should “dramatically increase military spending” due to the temporary perceived unreliability of Trump’s Presidency and the strategic risk of a rising China have been muddled due to his additional remarks surrounding a nuclear weapons option. Unfortunately, the nuke angle is now clouding any sensible debate around defence in a post-US Pacific, including some of White’s less radical but far more reaching concepts that have merit.
Associate Professor of Physics, UNSW has a great in-depth rebuttal to such notions, posted here in full fromIn his latest book, strategist and defence analyst Hugh White has gone nuclear, triggering a debate about whether Australia should develop and maintain its own nuclear arsenal.
But developing and sustaining modern nuclear weapons requires a certain combination of technologies and industries that Australia simply does not have. In fact, it may be safely estimated on the basis of approval and construction times for nuclear power reactors in other western countries that it would take some 20 years to establish such capabilities in the present legal and economic environment.
Opting for nuclear weapons also fails to consider the global implications of Australia abandoning its almost 50-year stance against nuclear proliferation.