In conversation with Hugh White

ANU/CANBERRA TIMES MEET THE AUTHOR

Hugh White will be in-conversation with Sam Roggeveen on Hugh’s new book How to Defend Australia. In this groundbreaking book, Hugh White considers a number of important issues, such as how seriously ought we take the risk of war? Do we want to remain a middle-power? What kind of strategy – and what Australian Defence Force – do we need?

Hugh White is Australia's most provocative, revelatory, and yet realistic commentator on Australia’s strategic and defence orientation. In an age of power politics and armed rivalry in Asia, it is time for fresh thinking. In this controversial and persuasive contribution, White sets new terms for one of the most crucial conversations Australia needs to have.

Hugh White AO is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at The Australian National University and is the author of The China Choice and the Quarterly Essay 39, Power Shift. He has served as an intelligence analyst with ONA, as a senior adviser on the staffs of Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and as a senior official in the Department of Defence, where from 1995 to 2000 he was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence.

Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, editor of the Lowy Institute Papers and a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU.

‘Hugh White is among our most knowledgeable and practised strategists. While I am strongly supportive of the US alliance, How to Defend Australia is a serious work from a serious patriot that requires close reading. It deserves a wide audience.’—Kim Beazley

‘Characteristically lucid and provocative, with How to Defend Australia Hugh White initiates a national conversation Australia must now have. His premises are hard to contest: that America is going; that China, India and Indonesia are all coming; that we must base our risk planning on their capability, not presumed intent; and that Australia’s relative strength is waning. This long-awaited summation of a lifetime’s professional thinking is a comprehensive and compelling wake-up call that we ignore at our peril.’ —Gareth Evans

The vote of thanks will be given by Allan Gyngell, an Honorary Professor in the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He is a former senior public servant, Executive Director of the Lowy Institute and author of 'Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942'.

Pre-event book signings will be available from 5:30pm and again after the event. This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop and books will be available to purchase.