Sam Roggeveen

Director, International Security Program
Areas of expertise

Australian foreign and defence policy, China’s military forces, US defence and foreign policy, drones and other military technology. Also, trends in global democracy.

Sam Roggeveen
Biography
Publications
News and media

Sam Roggeveen is Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace, published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.

Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior strategic analyst in Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, where his work dealt mainly with North Asian strategic affairs, including nuclear strategy and Asian military forces. Sam also worked on arms control policy in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, and as an analyst in the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

Sam has a long-standing interest in politics and political philosophy, and in 2019 he wrote Our Very Own Brexit: Australia's Hollow Politics and Where it Could Lead Us, about the hollowing out of Western democracy and its implications for Australia. 

Sam writes for newspapers and magazines in Australia and around the world, and is a regular commentator on the Lowy Institute’s digital magazine, The Interpreter, of which he was the founding editor from 2007 to 2014.

Sam also serves as lead editor at the Lowy Institute, and editor of the Lowy Institute Papers.

No, Australia has not caught the Trump bug
No, Australia has not caught the Trump bug
Rather than an outsider, Peter Dutton is a party loyalist who tried to rescue his party against a wealthy outsider.
Liberal leadership spill: The democratic arc of instability
Commentary
Liberal leadership spill: The democratic arc of instability
Originally published in Australian Financial Review. Sam Roggeveen
Australia’s political shakeup is evidence of the decline of party politics
Commentary
Australia’s political shakeup is evidence of the decline of party politics
Originally published in Washington Post.Sam Roggeveen
Malcolm Turnbull: ruling the void
Malcolm Turnbull: ruling the void
There is a malaise in Western politics of which Australia’s instability is merely one symptom.
Keep calm and carry on: a message to Trump critics
Keep calm and carry on: a message to Trump critics
With two-and-a-half years still to go in Trump’s first term, this level of outrage just cannot be maintained.
US Navy sails into Taiwan sunset
US Navy sails into Taiwan sunset
Whereas in 1996 America’s affirmations of support for Taiwan were genuine, they are now a bluff.
Trump–Kim summit: negotiating weakness
Trump–Kim summit: negotiating weakness
The real agenda in US–North Korea talks may be economic and political, rather than about arms.
Three reasons why the Singapore summit had to happen
Commentary
Three reasons why the Singapore summit had to happen
Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald.Sam Roggeveen
Singapore summit: the case for guarded optimism
Singapore summit: the case for guarded optimism
The US and North Korea are far apart, but look beneath the surface and there is a chance for agreement.
Top