ASPI Podcast: Policy, Guns & Money

Policy, Guns & Money is an Australian strategic affairs interview show with a broad but coherent brief. Defence policy is its spine, but the conversations regularly move through cyber conflict, technology, foreign interference, disinformation, Ukraine, AUKUS, the Quad, critical minerals, and democratic resilience. The show works best as a guided briefing room. A named interviewer brings in a specialist, sets the current policy moment, and then asks what the decision actually means. Some episodes focus on hardware and capability, including submarines, armoured vehicles, maritime strategy, Air Force education, and the Defence Strategic Review. Others turn to less visible infrastructure: rare earths, cyber tools, election integrity, supply chains, and the assumptions governments carry into future warfare. The tone is serious and practical. It does not chase spectacle. It asks how alliances function, how deterrence is strengthened, where budgets become constraints, and why democratic systems need public trust to withstand pressure. Australia is usually the anchor, but the frame is international. The United States, Europe, NATO, Ukraine, China, the Pacific, South East and East Asia, and multilateral institutions all appear as part of the same strategic landscape. The show also makes room for values and social consequences, including women’s participation in conflict resolution, online violence, authoritarianism, and the protection of liberal democratic norms. Its vocabulary can be policy-heavy, but the format keeps returning to explanation. Guests are asked to define the problem, separate assumption from evidence, and name the trade-offs that matter. That makes the show useful for listeners who follow defence and national security closely, but also for general listeners trying to understand why these issues keep moving from specialist circles into everyday politics. Across its run, Policy, Guns & Money becomes a snapshot of Australia thinking aloud about power, risk, resilience, and responsibility.