Challenges to Australia's strategic imagination

This series of Public Lectures seeks to stimulate public discussion on major challenges relating to Australia's strategic and defence policy and to contribute to the vital national conversation about Australia's future in the Indo-Pacific.

Lectures will be held monthly with the inaugural lecture presented by Professor Brendan Sargeant, Head of SDSC. Other forthcoming lectures will be announced in the coming weeks.

Inaugural lecture: Challenges to Australia's Strategic Imagination

How does Australia's strategic imagination shape Defence policy and strategy?

In this first lecture of the series, Brendan Sargeant will discuss the idea of a strategic imagination, explore some of the elements of the Australian strategic imagination, and set out some of the challenges faced in response to the current strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific.

About the speaker

Brendan Sargeant is Professor of Practice in Defence and Strategic Studies and Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. He retired from the Department of Defence in October 2017, where he was the Associate Secretary of Defence from September 2013. Prior to that appointment he was the Deputy Secretary Strategy. As Associate Secretary, he was responsible for oversight of the implementation of the First Principles Review, a major reform of Defence organisation and enterprise governance, planning, performance and risk management. He was the principal author of the 2013 Defence White Paper.