The weekly briefing

Warning Time

The week's movements across Australia's eight pillars of preparedness — one editorial read, measured and sourced. Companion to the book Unprepared: Australia in an Age of Chinese Power.

Warning Time · 11 September 2026

Iran spent this week attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil went through US$109. Commodity prices are near an 18-year high. And Australia spent the wee…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 4 September 2026

Four stories this week told us AUKUS is unstoppable. Two told us nobody wants to pay for it. Both are true, and only one of them involves steel. Meanwhile a Pac…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 29 August 2026

Two things happened this week that should be read together. Washington's own auditors put a number on how badly the US submarine enterprise is choking, and Aust…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 21 August 2026

The week's most important story didn't happen in the Taiwan Strait. It happened in Jakarta, where Indonesia and China agreed to expand joint military exercises,…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 14 August 2026

Two stories dominated the week, and they point in opposite directions. Washington told us AUKUS is fine while sailing through the Taiwan Strait 56 per cent less…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 7 August 2026

A big week for hardware and a bad week for everything hardware depends on. Australia got cleared to buy a missile no other country outside the United States is…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 31 July 2026

Five years into AUKUS, the Defence Minister told the country the American submarine rotations will "fade away" from 2032, his boss spent the rest of the week wa…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 24 July 2026

I'm still trying to get into the habit of things, and still fine tuning here and there. I'm posting this late without much finesse, just so I can be held there…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 19 July 2026

Two things happened this week that tell you everything about where Australia actually stands. Our closest ally in the Pacific folded to Beijing over Taiwan with…

Read the issue
Warning Time · 12 July 2026

I wasn't quite ready to go with the first newsletter yet, but this was one of the most significant weeks in Australian geopolitical news in recent months, and f…

Read the issue
Subscribe

Get Warning Time.

Join the list and we'll send you the first issue the moment it ships.

Free every week on Substack. Unsubscribe anytime.