Contested Ground exposes the complex and murky world of greyzone warfare, and how state and non-state actors vie for influence beneath the threshold of armed conflict. In our interconnected and globalised world, new opportunities have emerged for states to advance their interests within the global system. From cyber operations to disinformation campaigns, and from economic coercion to food security, join us as we navigate how state and non-state actors engage in this high-stakes game of power and influence. Get in touch, get your questions answered by our experts or share your stories. Contact [email protected] For daily news...
Latest episodes
-
25 min
The information advantage – how AI is reshaping influence, competition and power
Information has always shaped power and influence – but in the age of artificial intelligence, the speed, scale and sophistication with which narratives can be created and deployed…
-
16 min
When AI goes rogue – the emerging threat Australia isn't ready for
Artificial intelligence promises to transform productivity, business and government – but what happens when the technology starts making decisions its human operators never intende…
-
44 min
AUKUS, deterrence, and the deepening Australia–UK strategic partnership
Australia and the United Kingdom share one of the world's deepest strategic relationships – but in an increasingly contested geopolitical environment, that partnership is taking on…
-
35 min
Is Australia ready to secure its place in an increasingly contested space domain?
Phil Tarrant is joined by Space Industry Association of Australia CEO Dan Lloyd and chairman Darin Lovett to examine Australia's growing dependence on space and the strategic impli…
-
24 min
Is Australia slowly regulating away its own prosperity – and, with it, its national resilience?
Phil Tarrant and Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson examine the growing debate over Australia's economic direction, drawing on Chris Uhlmann's recent article in The Australia…
-
32 min
Is Australia's political discontent becoming a national security problem?
A dramatic political shift in Western Australia has put the major parties on notice and raised a much bigger question: what happens to Australia's national resilience when voters s…
-
41 min
Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia's choice between strategic camps and managed decline
Dr Ross Babbage warns that without urgent economic reform and industrial recalibration, Australia risks becoming a client state of Beijing. Returning to the Defence Connect Podcast…
-
42 min
The blind faith factor – why Australians trust an ADF they don't understand
As global security deteriorates, a major new UNSW Canberra survey reveals a startling paradox in the Australian psyche: unwavering trust in the Australian Defence Force, coupled wi…
-
48 min
Shots fired! Chinese missile test shatters Australia's "fog of peace", with Mike Pezzullo
As Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moves to secure the Pacific and ensure continued alignment with Australia, China threw a wrench in the works by conducting a ballistic…
-
53 min
Lessons from the UK in political polarisation, generational dislocation and intergenerational warfare, with Be…
While Australia's level of political atomisation is far from as bad as what is being experienced in the broader Western world, we're not far-off. How we engage with generations of…
-
37 min
Budget backlash – has Australia lost its political middle ground?
As Australia faces a populist political surge and the established political parties continue to lose ground, can Australia's "sensible" centre hold, or will decades of failed polic…
-
43 min
Australia's sovereign capability reckoning – why the system is no longer fit for purpose
Host Steve Kuper is joined by former navy logistician Dave Grosvenor and chair of the Gravity Group Steve Hayes for a wide-ranging discussion on Australia's sovereign capability, i…
-
41 min
Fortune favours the bold – building a national security strategy for the 21st century, with Marc Ablong
When Opposition Leader Angus Taylor announced a Coalition government would develop and implement a national security strategy, many shouted, "Finally!", but delivering a strategy t…
-
18 min
Assessing the fallout and implications of the latest Trump–Xi meeting for Iran, Taiwan and Australia
When the leaders of the world's two major powers meet, the world stops to take notice and nowhere is this clearer than in the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and h…
-
36 min
Australia and the West must ask themselves new questions in the face of the modern world, with Robbin Laird
Each and every day, the world is becoming more unpredictable, yet Australia continues with the post-Cold War status quo. As things continue to deteriorate, we're going to have to a…
-
34 min
The Defence budget, inflationary pressures and domestic information warfare
The release and messaging surrounding the 2026 National Defence Strategy and 2026 Integrated Investment Program is just the latest salvo in the government's effort to direct the na…
-
42 min
Shipping, supply chains and Australia's exposure to a volatile system, with UNSW's Professor Douglas Guilfoyle…
We are consistently reminded that Australia is a maritime trading nation and, as such, is exposed to all the vulnerabilities. So why haven't we prepared accordingly? As the ceasefi…
-
36 min
Successive governments have failed to prepare Australia for the era of polycrisis, with Marc Ablong PSM, Geost…
The war in the Middle East has served to reveal the now metastising vulnerabilities that permeate Australia's economic, political and strategic ecosystems, leaving the nation and i…
-
55 min
Apathy, complacency and the 'Lucky Country', Australia's predicament is entirely self-inflicted, with Ben Dull…
Australia has long prided itself on being the "Lucky Country", celebrating a culture of "she'll be right" now that a national culture of apathy is biting at home as the world conti…
-
16 min
Australian resilience during a crisis and sovereign industrial capability
In this episode of the Contested Ground Podcast, hosts Phil Tarrant, Steve Kuper and Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson unpack the concept of sovereign industrial capability…