Recently, national security debates in the United States and Australia have been heavily focused on the likelihood of conflict in the Taiwan Straits. Anastasia Kapetas is joined by Ryan Hass, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution to discuss the credibility of this narrative. They discuss the likelihood of conflict over Taiwan and how Taiwan can counter China’s actions.

Dr Robert Glasser is joined by Natasha Kassam, Director of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Program at the Lowy Institute to discuss Lowy’s ‘Climate Poll 2021’, an annual report on Australia’s national attitude to climate change.

ASPI’s annual Cost of Defence report breaks down the funding and expenditure of the Department of Defence, examining key areas of growth, acquisition spending and investment. Report author Dr Marcus Hellyer discusses some of the trends highlighted in this year’s report with Peter Jennings, and the increasing financial concern around Defence’s external workforce.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Cost of Defence: ASPI defence budget brief 2021-22: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/cost-defence-aspi-defence-budget-brief-2021-2022

‘Taiwan needs assuredness, not alarm’, Brookings Blog by Ryan Hass: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/05/18/taiwan-needs-assuredness-not-alarm/

Lowy Institute Climate Poll 2021: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/climatepoll-2021

Guests (in order of appearance):

Anastasia Kapetas: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/anastasia-kapetas

Ryan Hass: https://www.brookings.edu/experts/ryan-hass/

Dr Robert Glasser: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/robert-glasser

Natasha Kassam: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/people/experts/bio/natasha-kassam

Peter Jennings: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/peter-jennings

Dr Marcus Hellyer: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/marcus-hellyer

Background music: "Islabonita" by An Jone, via the YouTube Audio Library.

Image: Geoff Pryor.