The new - and old - threats beyond defence of Australia

The past five years have been strange ones in Australia's defence planning. We have spent more and more money building the armed forces, but it has become less and less clear what we are building them to do. The least serious result is that a lot of money is being wasted. The bigger risk is that we are losing the opportunity to build the forces we will need in coming decades. The confusion began in 2001. For a while after September 11 it seemed the main job of the Australian Defence Force would be to hunt terrorists, but it soon became clear that the war on terrorism was going to be a job for police and intelligence agencies rather than soldiers. Then we thought that the Bush Doctrine was the shape of the future, and that the defence force needed to be reshaped to support US forces as they fought for freedom against the axis of evil. That, too, has proved to be an illusion. There will be no more Iraqs for a while.