Strategic choices: Defending Australia in the 21st century

This report contains two papers that examine Australia's ability to fund defence into the future and the costs of various future ADF force structures. The first paper, authored by Mark Thomson, explores defence spending into the future and finds that there is no fundamental reason preventing greater expenditure if the government identifies a strategic need to do so. The second paper, authored by Andrew Davies, presents a number of different force structures, ranging from a considerably less capable and less expensive ADF designed for low-intensity operations through to a ‘muscular regional power’ with enhancements in all major capability areas.