Should Australia Develop Its Own Nuclear Deterrent?

U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Ronald Gutridge

Paul Dibb, RCD/The Strategist: Should Australia Develop Its Own Nuclear Deterrent?

Australia’s deteriorating strategic outlook raises the question under what conditions should we develop a nuclear weapon of our own? This option was seriously considered by Australian governments in the 1960s, and the Department of Defence kept the technological lead time for an Australian nuclear weapon under review until the early 1980s. That was at the height of the Cold War and, as one of America’s closest allies, we faced a real risk of Soviet nuclear attack.

We face no such risk these days. Nevertheless, we now have the prospect—for the first time since World War II—of a potential major-power adversary threatening us with high-intensity military conflict in our neighbourhood. This is not to identify China as an inevitable adversary, but prudent defence planning needs to accept that Beijing is developing the conventional military capabilities to threaten us seriously—were its intentions to change. Military developments in our region of primary strategic concern now require a change to our assessments about intelligence warning time.

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WNU Editor: If the international situation should warrant Australia to develop and build a nuclear deterrent .... that will tell me that we are living in a very dangerous world.

Hot To Respond To The Rising Chinese Empire

WNU Editor: One of the best analysis that I have read so far on the rise of China, and it is my must read for today .... ‘How empires begin.’ China has made its global move. This is Australia’s response (David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald).

A Pacific Warning -- A Commentary

From The Wall Street Journal:

Australia prepares for U.S. decline.

Since World War II, U.S. military dominance has underpinned the Asia-Pacific region's prosperity and relative peace. So it's cause for concern when one of America's closest allies sees that power ebbing amid unstable nuclear regimes such as Pakistan and North Korea and the expanding military power of China.

In the preface to a sweeping defense review released Saturday, Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon writes: "The biggest changes to our outlook . . . have been the rise of China, the emergence of India and the beginning of the end of the so-called unipolar moment; the almost two-decade-long period in which the pre-eminence of our principal ally, the United States, was without question."

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