How much longer can Australia’s strategic dissonance last? ⬇️

This week China sent several frigates through the Tasman sea and causing much consternation in the mainstream media (for the moment). Australia appears to have little time to dwell on the most dangerous geopolitical circumstances in our region since World War II.

Much has been said about accelerating Australia’s preparedness and recapitalising our Defence Force. Whether rhetoric is turning into reality however is up for debate. Strategic Analysis Australia’s Peter Jennings had a fiery op-ed first published in the Australian:

“China’s military and political leadership understands our lack of defence preparedness better than our own population. That’s why they are readying to fire missiles off our east coast. The cat is telling the mouse that it’s going to eat it for lunch, but the mouse is insisting our relations with the feline predator are really quite stable… We will be the cat’s lunch unless our political leaders wake up to the global danger now posturing not far from Sydney Harbour.”

Peter Jennings pulls no punches and lays down the gauntlet to respond to the urgency of the moment rather than continue to reheat rhetoric and hasten slowly. Australians are worried about making ends meet – they rely on the political class to make the difficult decisions on Defence and National Security rather than forever react to the lagging indicator that is public sentiment.

Our strategic dissonance is growing – caught in a dilemma where our largest trading partner is the pacing challenge to the US led global rules based order Australia depends upon for our national security.

Food for thought

📸 via Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)