Sam Roggeveen

Director, International Security Program
Areas of expertise

Australian foreign and defence policy, China’s military forces, US defence and foreign policy, drones and other military technology. Also, trends in global democracy.

Sam Roggeveen
Biography
Publications
News and media

Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace, published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.

Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior strategic analyst in Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, where his work dealt mainly with North Asian strategic affairs, including nuclear strategy and Asian military forces. Sam also worked on arms control policy in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, and as an analyst in the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

Sam has a long-standing interest in politics and political philosophy, and in 2019 he wrote Our Very Own Brexit: Australia's Hollow Politics and Where it Could Lead Us, about the hollowing out of Western democracy and its implications for Australia. 

Sam writes for newspapers and magazines in Australia and around the world, and is a regular commentator on the Lowy Institute’s digital magazine, The Interpreter, of which he was the founding editor from 2007 to 2014.

Sam also serves as lead editor at the Lowy Institute, and editor of the Lowy Institute Papers.

Telling tales about “Civil War”
Telling tales about “Civil War”
Politics isn’t the only strange omission from what is undoubtedly a captivating and relentless movie spectacle.
Open sources and the future of spying
Open sources and the future of spying
Countries spy to overcome an information deficit. But we now live in a world of information super-abundance.
Spiky questions remain for AUKUS proponents
Commentary
Spiky questions remain for AUKUS proponents
Originally published on Inside Story 
The right lessons for Australia’s future warships
The right lessons for Australia’s future warships
The war in Ukraine appears to be a revolution in naval warfare. Australia’s upcoming Surface Fleet Review must reflect on the consequences.
Manager of the internet, controller of the world?
Manager of the internet, controller of the world?
Power is much more than GDP and tank numbers. But the US monopoly on the digital age is eroding.
China's Sonar Ping Harassment Poses Test of Australia's Will
Commentary
China's Sonar Ping Harassment Poses Test of Australia's Will
Originally published on The Maritime Executive
China’s sonar pulse poses another test of Australia’s will
China’s sonar pulse poses another test of Australia’s will
Even with international law on its side, Australia is still grappling with the conundrum of whether might makes right.
The United States is more normal and less exceptional than you think
Commentary
The United States is more normal and less exceptional than you think
Originally published in Channel News Asia on 25 October 2023.
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