For more than a century, Australia has followed the same defence policy: dependence on a great power. This was first the United Kingdom and then the United States.

Without properly considering other options, successive federal governments have intensified this policy with the Aukus agreement and locked Australia into dependency on the US for decades to come.

A more imaginative and innovative government would have investigated different ways to achieve a strong and independent national defence policy.

One that, for instance, didn’t require Australia to surrender its sovereignty to a foreign power. Nor require the acquisition of fabulously expensive nuclear-powered submarines and the building of overpriced, under-gunned surface warships, such as the Hunter frigates.

In fact, in an age of rapidly improving uncrewed systems, Australia does not need any crewed warships or submarines at all.

Instead, Australia should lean into a military philosophy that I describe in my upcoming book, The Big Fix: Rebuilding Australia’s National Security. This is known as the “strategic defensive”.

The strategic defensive is a method of waging war employed throughout history, although the term’s use only dates to the early 19th century.

It doesn’t require a state to defeat its attacker. Rather, the state must........

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