THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY SERIES - AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE POLICY AFTER COVID-19 - Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith

THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY SERIES two-line heading only A publication of the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre November 2020 AUSTRALIA’S DEFENCE POLICY AFTER COVID-19 Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith Strategic and Defence Studies Centre a The Centre of Gravity series A publication of the Strategic & About the Centre of Gravity series Defence Studies Centre September 2020 The Centre of Gravity series. [...] They represent the beginning of major shift in strategic policy that will unfold over the next decade and is likely to result in major changes to the way that Defence is organised, the capabilities that the ADF requires, and Australia’s management of its participation in the security of our regional environment. [...] The fact is that international organisations such as the World Health Organisation, the WTO and the G‑20, have not been at the forefront of the world’s response. [...] We do not have access to the analysis of the scenarios that has informed the development of the force structure plan, so we do not know what the assumptions have been in considering the timescales over which the plan will be implemented, or what the contingency planning might be against the event that strategic circumstances deteriorate yet further and more quickly. [...] If strategic change can surprise the government in the four years between the 2016 Defence White Paper and now,34 If strategic change how much greater is the potential for strategic surprise over the next twenty to thirty years? It would be disturbing can surprise the to learn that the plan to be implemented over the next twenty years were predicated on the absence of further government in the unf.