2021: AUKUS: Political Gameplay with Innovation Opportunism

My article in InnovationAus published on 20 September 2021.

PDF of the article can be found here.

Opinion: AUKUS is being examined by many brilliant minds, experts in history and the intricacies of the many dimensions of the geopolitical landscape. AUKUS is globally significant and sets Australia on a course for the rest of the century.

My examination of the AUKUS announcement is through a geo-tech and innovation lens.

The determinants of strategic strength and strategic weakness are in fact the same common patterns driving digital disruption. Strength becomes a weakness and vice versa. The rules change. The players change. The game changes. Often unexpectedly.

The battlelines of the AI superpowers had been formally declared.

In the meantime, Australia has hollowed out its public sector capability; undervalued and underinvested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); defunded research; and has deep systemic deficits in cyber and digital.