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.

North Korea’s new missile
North Korea’s new missile
If – big if – this missile is real, America cannot guarantee its homeland security in a war with North Korea.
Why the American public has tuned out of politics
Commentary
Why the American public has tuned out of politics
The American political class are fighting their private culture wars that have sidelined the concerns that ordinary citizens have. Originally published in the Australian Financial…
Regional security depends on making order from chaos
Commentary
Regional security depends on making order from chaos
Originally published in The Australian.
Canberra vs Beijing: Getting serious about costs
Canberra vs Beijing: Getting serious about costs
It is impossible to have a useful public debate about the value of sovereignty if we refuse to put a price on it.
Unspoken danger in buying more missiles to defend Australia
Commentary
Unspoken danger in buying more missiles to defend Australia
Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Morrison’s defence reset
Morrison’s defence reset
The Prime Minister wants a defence force for a region which is “poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly”.
Emerging From COVID: Policy Responses To The Pandemic
Interactives
Emerging From COVID: Policy Responses To The Pandemic
In this new feature, Lowy Institute experts provide policy recommendations for Australia to address issues that are critical to our nation’s — and the world’s —…
Emerging from COVID: Policy Responses to the Pandemic
Policy Briefs
Emerging from COVID: Policy Responses to the Pandemic
Lowy Institute experts provide policy recommendations for Australia to address issues that are critical to our nation's — and the world's — successful emergence from the pandemic.
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