“We have seen in the development of the PLA over the last few decades, as fast an evolution of a military as the world has ever seen.” “You’d have to compare it with what Japan achieved after the Meiji Restoration or what the United States achieved in the late 19th and early 20th century, to have any sort of comparison.”“Certainly bigger than the navy that the Soviets built during the Cold War period.”Every fortnight, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world.Foreign Exchange. Brought to you by Australian Foreign Affairs.

“We all suffer from availability bias. What's the thing that's moving the world? Well, what's the thing that I can recall quickest now? “Well, it's Trump. Because he's always there. He's always there. But there are bigger forces at play.“So, on Venezuela, for instance, Trump did this very singular thing. But on the other hand, the United States has been intervening in central and south America for generations. That's what the Monroe Doctrine is. It's a 19th century idea. And over the course of, let's say, since the Second World War, there's been Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Cuba…”Every fortnight, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world.Foreign Exchange. Brought to you by Australian Foreign Affairs.

“Now, the interesting thing about this national security strategy, it sort of declares the end of great power rivalry by saying, actually, America is content to live in a world with other great powers, and accept that other great powers will have their own spheres of influence."The language is ambiguous. It's very unclear what it hopes to achieve, what the administration hopes to achieve strategically, in Asia, in relation to China. But it certainly seems to me to go a long way towards accepting that China is going to be a much more significant player in Asia than it used to be."

"There was that great quip from Henry Kissinger in the 1970s: if I want to talk to Europe, who do I call? "Now, of course, the answer to that question at the time and for long afterwards was Washington. If you want to talk to Europe, called Washington. In a strategic sense, Washington was the leader."What the United States is doing under Donald Trump is actually forcing that question to the forefront again, because if the Americans really are threatening to pull back, as they realistically might under Donald Trump, then it revives that question. "And you could argue that the European statecraft in this period, even under the the worst, most egregious provocations from Donald Trump and his team, that kind of genuflecting to Washington has been an attempt, an extended attempt to continue to defer that question."Every second Thursday, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world.

"I really don't think the United States today has a functioning national government."This week, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White break down what Trump and Albanese's visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Kuala Lumpur tells us about the current state of power in Asia. Then, they talk about the new Netflix series A House of Dynamite, how realistic it is, and what it tell us about the current state of nuclear proliferation. Finally, they provide some reading recommendations, on both foreign policy and some personal favourites.For more, check out the latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs, The Bomb: Will Asia go nuclear?

Every second Thursday, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world."You just have to look at the map. It's embedded in our strategic geography that PNG is always going to be very important to Australia's security. And that's an idea which goes back to the very dawn of Australian thinking about strategy and defense in the 19th century. Yes, it's a significant step to take. But I think in the end there might be less to it than meets the eye."

Every second Thursday, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective. Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world.“I this is this is for real a very genuine weakening of the credibility of US extended nuclear deterrence, towards North Korea in particular, as North Korea develops an intercontinental ballistic missile capability that can hit the United States, that increases the cost and risk to America of a nuclear strike on North Korea exponentially and therefore reduces the credibility of its extended nuclear deterrence posture.”

Every fortnight, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.

“I don't mind that framing, but my retort would be that the easiest and probably the cheapest and lowest risk way to ensure that China never becomes globally dominant is to ensure that China's own region remains perpetually contested.

After all, what was the sort of geostrategic basis of American dominance? It's that it had a totally untroubled and uncontested Western hemisphere.”

Every fortnight, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.“A word shall mean whatever I want them to mean, as Humpty Dumpty said. “But I do think it's helpful for clarity to reserve the word alliance for a relationship which carries clear mutual commitments to military support in the event of conflict. And for quite a long time now, going back to a late 90s even, you've seen the evolution of the Japan-Australia relationship in the direction in which would that would appear to be a logical end point.“And obviously, the rise of China and growing doubts about the United States are what's behind that.”

Every fortnight, Sam Roggeveen and Hugh White discuss major developments in international affairs affecting Australia and the region, from an Australian perspective.

“It's worth bearing in mind that although the US and its partners have been bitterly opposed to Iran’s nuclear capability for decades, it was always clear that there was no military solution to that problem until Donald Trump decided, well, and Benjamin Netanyahu decided to see if there was.

And what we discovered—again—is that there isn't. Most of the time, it's very difficult to achieve decisive strategic results through military operations. And even the ones that look like a success don't necessarily look like a success in the longer term.”

Compelling conversation, engaging debate and insightful perspectives. This series provides expert insights into Australia’s future in a changing world.

Foreign Exchange. Brought to you by Australian Foreign Affairs.