Andrew Davies, in his piece “Can Australia Fight Alone?” (Australian Foreign Affairs 2, February 2018), offers some critical observations about the Australian government’s plan to bolster military capability, in particular the intention to invest heavily in local weapons production, and an ambitious new goal for Australia to become a major arms exporter.
Davies astutely identifies some of the political and moral hazards this strategy entails, but his principal concerns relate to the efficacy, efficiency, costs and benefits. He doubts that anything approaching self-sufficiency can be achieved, and argues convincingly that such a build-up is unlikely to produce the economic benefits touted by the government.