Hugh White

“This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reassured us he has complete faith in America’s security guarantee. That is not a big surprise. In recent years, as China has challenged the familiar and agreeable American-led order in Asia, both sides …”

The Albanese government’s new defence strategy fails just as badly as previous documents, conflating two unreconcilable responses to China.

ANALYSIS: The government’s changes to the navy’s surface fleet solve nothing and leave the country with inappropriate, expensive and oversized ships – all for the sake of winning votes in two states.

China’s military escalation over Taiwan this week shows the futility of the US’s plan for ‘guardrails’ to manage tensions, and the risk of Australia being led ever closer to war.

Multiple points of failure are built into this program, coupled with the deep flaws in its strategic logic. AUKUS will become an embarrassing memory, if it is remembered at all.

“The ultimate reason for that is the big brutal fact that the DSR almost certainly evades: we will face the dangers of the decades ahead alone. The Albanese government doesn’t understand this any better than the Morrison government did. Richard Marles …”

“The old plan was to build a conventionally powered version of a nuclear-powered French submarine. It was crazy. The new plan – to buy a nuclear-powered submarine instead – is worse.”

As the Morrison government attempts a policy of containment against China, it risks the real prospect of war and one of the biggest failures of statecraft in Australia’s history.