This course is about strategic and defence policy - it focuses on how Australia develops and uses its armed forces. Australia spends $22 billion each year - 2% of GDP - building armed forces and conducting military operations.  This course explores how that money is spent, and why.  It explores the key questions that underpin the kinds of forces we choose to build. What role does armed force play in Australia's security?  What kinds of operations do our armed forces do to be able to play those roles? Which capabilities can do those operations most cost-effectively?  The course addresses these questions by developing clear connections between Australia's strategic objectives, our capability options and our financial recourses.  Along the way we explore current defence debates and controversies, examine the impacts of different views of the nature of security and the international system on those debates, and look at the big questions for the future.

On satisfying the requirements for this course, students will have the conceptual tools to judge the worth of contributions to defence policy debates, to contribute to those debates, and to have started to develop their own ideas about the big defence policy questions that confront Australia.

Assignments 60%, Examination 40%

Students undertaking this course could expect a workload of 10 hours a week. This is inclusive of actual contact hours for lectures and also out of class preparation time.

Delivery Mode:

On Campus