Message from the President:

As we're all aware, the Coronavirus pandemic is profoundly unsettling and severely disrupting our normal lives and sense of security.  

Supporting our national response is obviously the highest priority for every Australian's available time and energies. USI-ACT is in solidarity with our members and friends as we meet this challenge in accordance with our individual, family and community circumstances.   

As part of this response, the USI-ACT is temporarily suspending our program of events in its current form. We look forward to recommencing our monthly speaker presentations and other member events when the Government deems it prudent and safe to do so, and we will continue to review circumstances and Government policy.  

The USI-ACT looks forward to seeing you all again to resume our mission to facilitate a critical appreciation and discussion of the Australian national security and defence landscape - a landscape that has been profoundly shaken and challenged by the global pandemic. 

How Australia resources, prepares and prioritises its sovereign capabilities to deal with the pandemic will have considerable implications for how we face the broad spectrum of security and defence threats into the future. These times are a great challenge to our national character and resilience.   

We look forward to contributing to that national discussion as soon as we can.  

Our Last Event

Thursday 13 Feb: Defence and National Security After the Fire Emergency: A Way Forward with Professor John Blaxland.

Given that the recent National focus has been on the fires devastating a number of regions throughout Australia it was appropriate and timely to address a topic related to National Security that is more internally focused. Prof Blaxland’s topic was: “Defence and National Security After the Fire Emergency: A Way Forward”.

You can watch Professor Blaxland's presentation here.

Complete bio

John Blaxland is Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies. He was recently appointed Official Historian of the Australian Signals Directorate and commissioned to write a two-volume history of ASD. He is a former Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and the first Australian recipient of a US Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative grant examining great power contestation in Southeast Asia.