Australian Military Strategy

In more than one hundred years of Federation, Australia has only once had a military strategy worthy of the name, and even then its currency was brief. Given our frequent involvement in major wars, this may seem curious. The answer can found in the nation’s grand (political) strategy, which has largely rendered unnecessary a complementary military strategy.

Since Federation in 1901, Australia’s grand strategy has been to try to shelter under the umbrella of a great and powerful friend, first the United Kingdom, and then the United States. One component of the premium on that perceived security indemnity has been the obligation to send forces overseas to support those friends in conflicts that might otherwise have seemed of dubious relevance to Australian security, such as World War I, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.