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.

Defence Strategic Review: Strong chords, with one jarring note
Defence Strategic Review: Strong chords, with one jarring note
A promising strategy, but is there tension with AUKUS?
What “Utopia” got wrong about China and defence policy
What “Utopia” got wrong about China and defence policy
If Australia didn’t have a Defence Force, would China have turned to force rather than economic coercion?
Australia, China, AUKUS and the squandered advantage
Australia, China, AUKUS and the squandered advantage
Canberra appears to have overlooked the tyranny of distance as its chief asset in regional military deterrence.
The big AUKUS question that Albanese has yet to answer
Commentary
The big AUKUS question that Albanese has yet to answer
Paul Keating is insouciant about China’s muscle and dismissive of Taiwan’s democracy. But he has changed the national debate about the submarine deal. Originally published in the…
Marles torpedoes French subs, but is yet to explain nuclear advantage
Marles torpedoes French subs, but is yet to explain nuclear advantage
For such a high-stakes and expensive enterprise the public deserves to know not just what boats we’re getting, but why.
The real message B‑52s send from northern Australia
The real message B‑52s send from northern Australia
Given distances and demands on crew and aircraft, a US bomber fleet near Darwin amounts to only modest change.
AUKUS, one year on
AUKUS, one year on
Australians deserve the details of what nuclear-powered submarines mean – for national defence and identity alike.
Conversations: Chris Blattman on Why We Fight
Podcasts
Conversations: Chris Blattman on Why We Fight
Join the Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, Sam Roggeveen, as he talks with economist and political scientist Chris Blattman about his latest book,…
Frontier Rules: Emerging tech and challenges to the rules-based order
Interactives
Frontier Rules: Emerging tech and challenges to the rules-based order
Intensifying geopolitical competition is combining with emerging technologies to create new frontiers for statecraft and present new challenges to the rules-based order. How…
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