How difficult is it to get politicians to invest in defence spending, even when a war is looming?

On Afternoon Light #191 Georgina Downer speaks with Augustine Meaher about the predictability of the fall of Singapore, how it embodied Australia's overreliance on great powers for defence, and reluctance to invest in re-arming itself ahead of World War II. A conversation replete with haunting lessons for today.

Dr. Augustine Meaher is a professor of National Security Studies at the USAF's Air University. His main areas of interest are European History and Politics with an emphasis on military history and politics. He is presently researching the United States military in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. He teaches Military History at the University of North Georgia. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is the author of The Australian Road to Singapore: The Myth of British Betrayal.

The views he expresses in this interview are his own.