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.

China’s Third Aircraft Carrier Is Aimed at a Post-U.S. Asia
Commentary
China’s Third Aircraft Carrier Is Aimed at a Post-U.S. Asia
Beijing can’t challenge U.S. naval power directly yet. Originally published in the Foreign Policy Magazine.
Australia enters the post-party phase of Western democracy
Australia enters the post-party phase of Western democracy
Get used to governing with wafer-thin majorities or as a minority.
China: The Morrison legacy and beyond
China: The Morrison legacy and beyond
Labor is expected to persist with most of the Coalition’s foreign and defence policies. But useful changes can be made.
Chinese bases in the Pacific: A reality check
Chinese bases in the Pacific: A reality check
Frustrating Beijing’s ambitions to create a sphere of influence is overwhelmingly a diplomatic task, not a military one.
Russia-Ukraine: Lessons for Australia’s defence
Russia-Ukraine: Lessons for Australia’s defence
Great powers seek spheres of influence – but there are limits.
Indonesia makes a big defence statement
Indonesia makes a big defence statement
Canberra should look beyond the Quad and to its own backyard for an all-weather strategic friend.
Lowy Institute Conversations: Paul Kelly on Scott Morrison's foreign policy 'mission'
Podcasts
Lowy Institute Conversations: Paul Kelly on Scott Morrison's foreign policy 'mission'
In this episode, Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program Sam Roggeveen speaks to journalist and political commentator Paul Kelly about the factors and…
Don’t let the China hawks frighten you
Commentary
Don’t let the China hawks frighten you
China will become more powerful -- but any hostile reach towards Australia will always be limited by technology and regional politics. Originally published in the Australian…
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