Over the past 11 years, ASPI has been proud to produce fresh ideas and analysis on Australia’s most important long-term strategic and defence issues.

ASPI’s well-established publication lines have served us well, and we’ll continue to produce a range of quality long form publications. But, like the rest of the publishing world, our audience is increasingly looking for new ways to access our products. We’re already on Twitter ^[1] and Facebook ^[2], and they are opportunities for a greater two-way dialogue than ASPI has had in the past, as well as a way to promote collegiality amongst the wider strategy and defence community.

Building on that foundation, we’re pleased to welcome you to our new blog, The Strategist. With input from ASPI researchers and contributors from around the world, The Strategist will host material to stimulate thinking and discussion about the critical strategic choices which our country will face over the coming years.

You’ll find shorter items here than in our ongoing lines, but there’ll be the same mix of informed opinion and qualitative and quantitative analysis for which we are known, including commentary and discussion, graphs, maps and book reviews.

The biggest game in town, at least as far as defence and strategy is concerned, is the planning and development of the 2013 Defence White Paper. We hope that The Strategist will be the ‘go to’ place for discussion of the White Paper and how it will tackle Australia’s security challenges in the Asian Century.

Our blog editorial team is the Executive Editor, Dr Andrew Davies ^[3], senior analyst specialising in defence capability, and Editor, Natalie Sambhi ^[4], analyst, the newest member of ASPI’s staff.

We hope you enjoy reading our blog as much as we enjoy putting it together. Of course, we’re open to input from our readership—over time we’re confident that The Strategist will present a wide range of views and perspectives.