U.S. Pacific Fleet doing an exercise with the Philippines in the South China Sea. Image from Flickr, courtesy of U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Defence White Paper fails to deal with the strategic risks we face in the Asian century
29 February 2016
Like so many defence plans before it, the latest one leaves us drifting without a coherent response to China’s bid for regional leadership.
The 2016 Defence White Paper, launched last week, has been much admired for being hard-nosed about China. But it is only the latest in a long line of defence policy documents since 1994 that have tried to address the implications of China's rise for Australia's defence needs. And like them, it has failed. Read Defence White Paper fails to deal with the strategic risks we face in the Asian century.
