Contested Ground
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.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 6
- Latest publication
- Sep 16, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest episodes
Is Australia slowly regulating away its own prosperity – and, with it, its national resilience? (opens the original)
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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 Australian on the "Argentinisation" of Australia. They unpack the risks posed by weak productivity, rising regulation, higher costs, and falling investment – and ask what sustained economic underperformance could mean for housing, business confidence, and the nation's broader strategic strength. Because if Australia enters an i
Is Australia's political discontent becoming a national security problem? (opens the original)
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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 stop trusting the institutions that govern them? Hosts Phillip Tarrant and Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson examine the rise of populism in Australia and why growing political polarisation, cost-of-living pressures and economic frustration should be viewed through a national security lens. They unpack the erosio
Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia's choice between strategic camps and managed decline (opens the original)
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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, strategic analyst Dr Ross Babbage delivers an unsparing diagnosis: Australia is drifting towards a future of strategic weakness, economic vulnerability and de facto dependence on Beijing – unless the nation urgently reverses course on industrial policy, governance efficiency and the information asymmetry crippling pu
The blind faith factor – why Australians trust an ADF they don't understand (opens the original)
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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 with a deep misunderstanding of its operations, widespread apathy towards increased funding, and a shocking drop in support for traditional alliances. Australia's relationship with the ADF is reaching a strange inflection point. Joining Steve Kuper on Contested Ground, UNSW Canberra's Dr Richard Dunley and Dr Nicole Town
Shots fired! Chinese missile test shatters Australia's "fog of peace", with Mike Pezzullo (opens the original)
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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 missile test, effectively firing the starter's gun on a countdown to war. In a chilling diagnosis of the Australian political landscape, the latest Contested Ground podcast presents a blunt thesis: the nation has traded the rigorous, strategic statecraft of the past for a hyper-partisan focus on domestic "household" e
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