x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Grumpy Strategists

Strategic Analysis Australia

The Grumpy Strategists chat about defence and security issues, from an Australian perspective. We say simple things about complicated issues that help cut through the politics and careful bureaucratic talking points. Critical but constructive conversations about the big security and technology issues affecting our world. RSSVERIFY

government politics

All Episodes

43:21

Iran War: bad guys, rose petals and donuts - Trump...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/03/04

Marcus and Michael reflect on their wisdom in modifying the Grumpies bunker to hold thousands of litres of diesel and 8 pallets of tinned tomatoes, as the war escalates in the Middle East. They set out three scenarios for the outcome and only one of them - the least likely (spoiler, it involves rose petals and cheering crowds)- is good. Then it's on to examine the desperate contortions of US allies - notably the UK's Keir Starmer and our own PM Albanese, and ministers Marles and Wong - to avoid

en

35:30

Plumbing new depths in politics. And Chinese sub...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/02/26

Marcus goes diving to try to find rock bottom in Australian political discourse, but has to come up for air. He at least found the curious case of a Canberra cafe that police found had put up satirical posters & hosts live music (What have we come to as a people???). No arrests or jail time yet....Then it's back to the undersea world of AUKUS progress and the far more concrete, rapid momentum behind Chinese nuclear powered - and armed - submarine production. They managed to build a new shed and

en

38:01

Mindboggling! celebrating $30 billion on sub sheds...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/02/19

The Grumpy Strategists boggle at the sheer chutzpah of PM Albanese and State Premier Malinauskas announcing as a triumph spending $30 billion & taking until 2040 to build submarine construction sheds (not actual submarines). At least the premier had the honesty to say the biggest beneficiaries weren't Australians worried about security, they were the South Australians who are to receive this firehose of taxpayer cash. He's right to be boggled. Meanwhile, Australia's leaders across the spectrum

en

38:16

Australia's defence budget update: a sugar hit...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/02/10

The Grumpy Strategists pan for gold in 234 pages of dense, incoherent Government paperwork setting out the Albanese Government's revised plans for our nation's defence, and find some rather smelly nuggets. About $3.2 billion dollars is being brought forward to be spent earlier than planned - with a $1.2 billion chunk on more bills for those still distant AUKUS subs. But the overall Defence budget for this next 4 years is being cut by $2.6 billion. Mr Albanese may have smiled at US President Donald

en

39:50

Deceased estate: Oz Defence sells the silver to fund...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/02/05

The Grumpy Strategists look at the recent 'historic" plan for Australia's Defence real estate (okay, a shameless Government asset sale of historic sites to perhaps produce a one-off cash dribble that will be sucked into the AUKUS sub & Hunter frigate budgetary black holes.....). Metrics show the value of this deceased estate approach to Defence properties: flogging off most of the places Defence actually makes contact with Australians in urban areas may provide enough cash for two "Hegseths" -

en

34:13

Penguins, not principles, key to Australia's Trump...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2026/01/21

Marcus & Michael pull together a deal Australian PM Albanese can offer to his great & powerful pal, US President Trump, at his first meeting of the Board of Peace, with lessons in Trump-management even for Vladimir Putin. They review the Australian Government's cunning formula on US actions in the world - 'I don't intend to provide a running commentary on American policy' - and assess how well this text will work as the basis for Australian strategy in the new National Defence Strategy

en

57:49

Trump's edifice complex gets Grumpy, & 2025 strategic...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/12/22

What's in a name? The Trumpy Strategists Bunker showcases the direction of Australian policy in 2025, while the Grumpies ponder MAGA tensions from Turning Point USA to Susie Wiles' cry for help in Vanity Fair. On bigger issues, Marcus & Michael look at the responses so far to the murderous Bondi attack, search for highlights in Australian military capability programs and look over the big policy takeaways from 2025. US self harm & a Beijing happy not to interrupt are prominent. Despite

en

49:35

AUKUS gets steamy, & cherrypicking can't make the US...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/12/12

Well, well, well. the Pentagon's AUKUS review is out - well, actually under lock and key, but apparently its' great news that is about "strengthening" AUKUS. Hard to know how something that was flawlessly on track could need or be strengthened....Australian & US defence and foreign policy heads met in a steamy AUSMIN meeting leaving the rest of us in the dark while they got close. Meanwhile, the jarringly self-congratulatory grievance filled US National Security Strategy is out, bringing back

en

47:14

The hunt for Defence reform downunder: Mr Conroy &...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/12/06

Marcus & his fellow SES emergency volunteers hunt for the "Biggest Defence Overhaul in 50 years" somewhere deep in the Brindabellas (WARNING: parts of this episode contain disturbing elements of earlier reforms who appear to have been victims of foul play). Good news - those blockers stopping delivery of stuff for Australia's military - the Secretary and the Chief of the Defence Force - won't be able to get away with this for much longer. Details are scarce but the hunt is relentless. Then it's

en

37:22

A democratic lockdown fit for an authoritarian &...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/12/02

The Grumpies broadcast from Australia's Parliament House while admiring the Government's lockdown of our democracy's capitol to make a visiting Chinese Communist Party member feel right at home. They start going over the Defence department's homework in its latest Annual report and find some blank spaces where answers should be. The episode ends with victory for Beijing in turning the South China Sea from an international maritime highway into contested space, & a chat about the controversy

en

37:12

Australian industry gets more Aussie, while Australia...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/11/19

Marcus and Michael pursue littoral dominance in Canberra's Lake Burley-Griffin while pondering the Australian Government's new definition of Australian industry, and PM Albanese's defence agreement with former military strongman turned Indonesian President Prabowo. They send Treasurer Chalmers best wishes wrestling with Korea's Hanhwa Ocean's bid to buy more of Aussie shipbuilder Austal in the face of Japanese industrial concerns around the Mogami frigates given Austal's role. They end with the

en

33:16

Trump's Asia Tour: replica-crowned with success, and...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/11/07

The Grumpies consider the net effect of US President Trump's Asia tour, and are outraged he was gifted a REPLICA crown. They examine the idea of South Korea building nuclear submarines, potentially in Philadelphia to give Americans jobs,,,,,,(the idea AUKUS set such a high threshold for nuclear sub tech sharing it would not result in proliferation now looks quaint). They end by going over a new report putting a $2.4 trillion potential price tag on the US Golden Dome missile and space defence system,

en

42:32

Albanese meets Trump: champagne all round - but a...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/10/24

The Grump Strategists move back into their renovated bunker deep in the Brindabellas to assess the finely-managed Albanese-Trump meeting. Full marks to PM Albanese & Ambassador Rudd for stage managing & delivering the meeting. The critical minerals deal has been celebrated as historic. It was a delightfully cheap distraction from tricky questions about Australian defence spending. But the bigger issues the meeting surfaced cut to the core of Indo Pacific security and Australian assumptions

en

44:46

Episode 50: With friends like this...& Why spend real...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/09/24

Marcus is back from Australia's croc-filled Outback. He catches up with Michael on global events: America's end to a Baltic states security initiative and the Trump Administrations' prep work for a Xi-Trump meeting - a Tik Tok half deal & pauses to a $400m US military aid package for Taiwan. They go Premier Allan's extraordinary connection of Victoria to Beijing's education system, and look into recent Australian Defence announcements on Anduril's Ghost Shark & the even more elusive

en

34:22

Europe's lessons in dealing with unreliability,...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/09/01

In Episode 49, Marcus and Michael go over the lessons for Australia from Europe's approach to dealing with an unreliable US over the war in Ukraine. They discuss the now disturbing centralisation of authority in the single person of the President in the US, and fly a new policy kite for growing the alliance in a time of Trump - reinventing US extended deterrence by requesting deployment of the US National Guard & Marines onto Australian streets. You heard it here first. The episode ends with the

en

46:10

The Ambassadors Series - a Grumpy Strategist meets a...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/08/18

Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko speaks with a grumpy strategist about his path from business to diplomacy, & the surreal experience of families - including his - like fighting in the Russian military during WW2 & now fighting against Russian invaders in their homeland. They cover connections between the war & our part of the world - North Korea and China's direct support to Russia & also Russia's efforts to grow its military relationship with Indonesia. The episode sets out

en

46:28

Episode 48: Grumpy But Grand Strategy - Australia's...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/08/12

Before Dr Hellyer jets off to Samoa, the Grumpy Strategists go Grand - Australian grand strategy looked at through its two enduring pillars of: 1. economic prosperity by mainlining into China's economy, and 2. a strategic pillar that relies on American security. Great stuff for the last 4 decades of 'rules based global order'ing, not so great for the competitive power-based world we're in now. We'll get back to drilling into all things Aust Defence shortly....maybe.

en

42:02

Episode 47 Ground truthing Australia's drone journey...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/08/02

The Grumpy Strategists drill into the facts behind Australian Govt announcements on drones to find disappointment: celebrating $16.7m on counter drone systems while spending $11m per day on AUKUS puts things into perspective, as does the fact Australia had roughly 700 drones in 2024 while the Russians fire 800 a night at Ukraine. They try to bridge the huge gap between Aust-UK AUKUS announcements & the UK's actual capacity to build subs & deploy its military. Then Marcus surfaces from

en

40:27

Grumpy Strategist Makers Series - with Beaten Zone's...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/07/22

One Grumpy Strategist talks with Beaten Zone Ventures boss Steve Baxter. They set out Steve's journey from the Army to business success in the tech world, to now running an outfit all about investing in smart Australian companies making the best defence tech on the planet - for everyone but Australia....Changing that could be as simple - but big - as adopting the Ukrainian military's almost gamified 'Brave1' model - a market-based program that has soldiers using an online shop and tokens earned by

en

41:50

Oh dear, what have you done to my fleet!? & Is...

The Grumpy Strategists ·

2025/07/15

The Grumpies go over an Audit report revealing the comprehensive, systemic failures of Defence, the Navy and its contractors to maintain and operate the Navy's two biggest ships. The obvious question is how can the Navy be capable 'stewards' operating and maintaining nuclear powered subs? But there's the good news that 8 years of continuous naval shipbuilding have delivered one, mostly harmless, patrol vessel to the Navy, and our Army has test fired HIMARS. The episode ends with the Grumpies

en

70 results

Similar Podcasts

The Fly

Georgetown"s Institute of Politics and...

THE CONSTITUTION STUDY

Paul Engel

The DSR Daily

The DSR Network

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

Fora do Baralho

Rádio Observador