Saltwater Strategists

Application of Naval History and Strategy Dr Sean Andrews, CSC, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre, University of Oxford, and Dr Knox Peden, Academic Research Officer in the Sea Power Centre - Australia and a Visiting Fellow in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University Synopsis: Through the amalgam of their own 125-year annivers...

Unpacking the Maritime Elements of the 2026 National Defence Strategy The Australian Naval Institute hosted a discussion on 6 May 26 examining the maritime elements of the recently released 2026 National Defence Strategy. The panel explored what the Strategy says about Australia at sea, where capability and investment priorities are heading, and whether current settings align with Australia’s stra...

Inaugurated in 2021, The Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize is awarded annually by the ANI to recognise excellence in books making a major contribution to the study and understanding of naval and maritime matters. The Prize is sponsored by the National Shipbuilding College and is named after Commodore Sam Bateman AM RAN (1938-2020), a former ANI Councillor and strategic...

Key to success in naval and maritime security operations is situational awareness. Collection and collation of battlespace data represents a significant component of operations, often long before the commencement of the main action. The concept and use of a recognised maritime picture is increasingly expanding beyond the naval and military realm with technology increasingly empowering civil securi...

Host Duncan MacRae is joined by the Royal Australian Navy’s Warrant Officer Cheryl Collins, OAM CSM, currently Warrant Officer Joint Operations and the Command Senior Enlisted Leader to the Chief of Joint Operations Australia. Having joined the RAN 30 years ago as a young woman from Cootamundra in New South Wales, Cheryl’s career has seen her undertake numerous key leadership positions across trai...

In this first episode for 2026, host Duncan MacRae sits down with John Seymour to discuss ‘Australia’s Naval Alliances: Lessons of History’, his new book exploring the development of Australian seapower and naval forces predominantly in the context of Australia’s relationship with Great Britain; from the latter years of the 19th century, through early Federation and World War I, culminating in the...

In this final episode of Saltwater Strategists for 2025, host Duncan MacRae sits down with Omni Executive’s Steven Thorpe and Nick Stoker to discuss Australian engagement and partnership in the Pacific region. Omni, an Australian-owned business and sponsor of the Australian Naval Institute, focuses on delivering innovative national security and critical infrastructure solutions to develop Australi...

The recent Indo-Pacific Maritime Trade Exposition and the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower Conference was the venue for the launch of ‘A Maritime Strategy for Australia – AMS 2035’, a monograph from the Naval Studies Group at the University of New South Wales (Canberra). This timely publication brings together research and analysis from a group of distinguished authors; presenting strategic, polic...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s (ANI) Saltwater Strategists, special guest host and ANI Councillor Jen Parker is joined by Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, AO, Chief of the Royal Australian Navy and Patron of the ANI, to discuss the Navy’s transformation in the face of a rapidly changing maritime environment. Vice Admiral Hammond reflects on the milestones of his tenure as Chief of N...

In this episode of Saltwater Strategists, host Duncan MacRae welcomes former Sri Lankan naval officer Dr Roshan Kulatunga to discuss Sri Lankan maritime strategy through the lens of his recent academic research. Dr Kulatunga holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Peradeniya, where he currently conducts research on maritime strategy, sea power, maritime diplomacy and the secu...

The trilateral AUKUS agreement has drawn significant attention to the matter of naval shipbuilding across all three participant nations. Joining host Duncan MacRae to discuss the many challenges facing naval shipbuilding programs in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, is Dr Emma Salisbury, Sea Power Research Fellow at the Council on Geostrategy and an Associate Fellow at the Royal...

In this episode of the Saltwater Strategist, ANI councillor and podcast host Duncan MacRae speaks with Angela Gillham, Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Industry Australia Ltd (MIAL) and member of the Australian Government’s 2022 Maritime Strategic Fleet Taskforce. The creation of the Maritime Strategic Fleet Taskforce in October 2022, followed by the delivery of its report in June 2023, was an...

Inaugurated in 2021, The Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize is awarded annually by the ANI to recognise excellence in books making a major contribution to the study and understanding of naval and maritime matters. In this episode of Saltwater Strategists, host Duncan MacRae welcomes Dr Tom Lewis, OAM to the podcast to discuss his winning entry to the 2024 Prize – ‘The Si...

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Australian Naval Institute. In this first episode for 2025, podcast host Duncan MacRae chats with sitting ANI President, Peter Leavy, AM CSM, to discuss the history of the ANI – its formation, key personalities, notable events and activities – and the organisation’s vision for the future. Duncan and Peter also discuss the year ahead and the w...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, host Jen Parker is joined by Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, Chief of the Australian Army, to discuss the Army's strategic focus on optimising for littoral manoeuvre. Lieutenant General Stuart discusses the strategic importance of littoral manoeuvre for Australia as an island nation and why this focus has become imperative...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, host Jen Parker is joined by Tom Shugart, a prominent expert in naval and defence strategy, to discuss the evolving power of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). With a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy and deep expertise in analysing naval capabilities, Tom provides a detailed analysis of China's maritime ambition...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, ANI Councillor Jen Parker and renowned British naval historian Professor Geoffrey Till discuss Professor Till’s book, ‘How to Grow a Navy’. ‘How to Grow a Navy’ was the 2023 winner of the Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize. This episode covers a broad range of issues affecting naval development fr...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, ANI Councillor Duncan MacRae is joined by Dr Collin Koh Swee Lean, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, to discuss what the future of Indonesian maritime and naval capability might look like under the forthcoming presidency of Prabowo Subianto. Drawing on insights from Prabowo’s tenure as Indo...

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, ANI Councillor Duncan MacRae welcomes Rob Wilson, Business Development Manager for Systematic in Australia, and Mick Devine, Defence Account Manager for Saab Australia, to discuss the application of open-architecture concepts to naval and defence capability. From Systematic’s extensive history as a global defence informatio...

In this special episode of the Saltwater Strategists, we bring you the annual Vernon Parker Oration recorded in Canberra on 15 May 2024. Professor Rory Medcalf AM, Head of the National Security College, Australian National University delivers this iteration of the Vernon Parker Oration ‘Putting AUKUS in its place: Australia’s submerged Indo-Pacific strategy’.

In this episode of the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, ANI Councillor Jen Parker (www.jennifer-parker.com.au) and Open-Source Intelligence expert HI Sutton from ‘Covert Shores’ (www.hisutton.com) discuss Ukraine’s effective sea denial campaign in the Black Sea. Separating fact from fiction, Jen and HI Sutton breakdown the details of the maritime capabilities employed by Ukraine...

This is the third Saltwater Strategists episode of three supported by the ASEAN-Australia special summit maritime track organisers. Following a big week in Southeast Asian maritime affairs, from the ASEAN-Australia dialogue held in Melbourne, to further dangerous incidents in the South China Sea this podcast covers it all. ANI Councillor Jen Parker and Dr Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby a non-resid...

This is our second episode of three supported by the ASEAN-Australia special summit maritime track organisers. In the lead up to the ASEAN-Australia special summit maritime track, ANI Councillor Jen Parker sits down with Dr Asmiati Malik, from the University of Bakrie, Indonesia. In this episode Jen and Asmiati get back to basics discussing the history of ASEAN, the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacif...

In the first episode of Series 3 on the Australian Naval Institute’s Saltwater Strategists, the focus is on the year ahead for maritime affairs in Australia. Professor Bec Strating, Director Latrobe Asia and a non-visiting fellow at the Royal Australian Navy’s Sea Power Centre joins Australian Naval Institute Councillor Jen Parker to discuss what are shaping up to be some of the biggest maritime t...

In this episode of ‘The Saltwater Strategists,’ ANI Councillor Professor Rob McLaughlin takes the helm and interviews the Australian Naval Institute’s Jennifer Parker and VADM (Retd) Peter Jones on their recent Australian Naval Institute Occasional Paper ‘Australian Naval Capabilities in the Littoral: Past, Present and into the Future’. During the episode Rob, Peter and Jen explore the history of...