The inescapable ocean: on understanding Australia's strategic geography
RIS ID
83616
Link to publisher version (URL)
Additional Publication Information
ISBN: 9780642297723
Abstract
The development of a distinct maritime school of strategic thought for Australia is an important initiative by the current Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, RAN. Griggs has explicitly attempted to surmount the intellectual obstacle posed by an increasingly sterile defence debate that has witnessed the growth of an expeditionary school of strategic thought as a counter to the longstanding continental school, dominant in Australian policy since 1986. Instead, Griggs has rejected the ‘binary’ approach of this debate to suggest an alternative, maritime, school.1 In so doing it is essential to pay due consideration to Australia’s strategic geography. The argument that follows states, for Australia, the ocean quite literally is inescapable.2 It establishes the strategic meaning of Australia’s geographical position in the context of both current and past international geopolitical circumstances, and related defence debates
Publication Details
Rahman, C 2013, ‘The Inescapable Ocean: On Understanding Australia’s Strategic Geography’, in J Jones (ed.), Sea Power Series: A Maritime School of Strategic Thought for Australia: Perspectives, Sea Power Centre, Canberra, pp. 69-74.