Defence thinkers routinely identify Australia as one of the safest countries in the world. However, Australia’s future is likely to be more dangerous and troubling than its past has been. As such fear is likely to play a much greater role in the determination of Australia’s security policy than it has in the recent past.

This paper, by the acclaimed strategist, Albert Palazzo, discusses the comparison between Swiss and Australian approaches to threatening strategic environments. Palazzo argues that just as post-Federation Australia looked to the Swiss example, so it should again do so today. He shows that the arrival of long-range precision strike, distant sensors, and global and ubiquitous communications now make the Swiss security policy of dissuasion a technologically and economically viable choice for Australia.