In 1997 Adam Lockyer was finishing Year 12 at Leumeah High School and working part time at the Minto Mall Kmart store.
Less than 20 years later he has written a book hailed as “essential reading for anyone interested in strategy or the future of Australian defence policy’’.
Published by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP), Australia’s Defence Strategy: Evaluating Alternatives for a Contested Asia, is Adam Lockyer answering the question: How would we know a good defence strategy if we saw one?
Not a bad effort for a first time author, as Lockyer confirmed to the SW Voice.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“Yes, it’s my first book, but hopefully not the last,’’ he said.[/social_quote]
Dr Adam Lockyer, who studied at Sydney University after finishing high school in Campbelltown, is a senior lecturer in security studies at Macquarie University.
He is also a research associate at the United States Studies Centre and was the 2015 Fulbright Scholar in US-Australian Alliance Studies.
Many locals would know his mother, Donnelle Lockyer, who worked at a senior level with Campbelltown Council for many years and is now actively involved with Sunrise Rotary club in Campbelltown.
However her son Adam is not the first military expert to hail from Campbelltown.
The current chief of the defence force – Mark Binskin – is also a Campbelltown boy.
Adam Lockyer’s book takes as its starting point the fact that the so called Asian Century is challenging many of the traditional assumptions at the heart of Australian defence policy and strategy.
According to the publisher’s media release on the book, defence scholars have risen to the challenge of these transformational times and have collectively produced a smorgasbord of alternatives for policy-makers.
The problem is that these recommendations all point in very different directions.
How should we evaluate these options?
Adam Lockyer tackles this question and develops a novel conceptual framework for evaluating defence strategies.
“By doing so, this book breaks new theoretical ground and makes an important contribution to our understanding of strategy in general and defence strategy in particular,’’ the publisher says.
“Lockyer then applies this analytical tool to the leading arguments in Australia’s defence debate and finds that there is still substantial work to be done.
“He concludes by proposing a new Australian defence strategy for a contested Asia that would pass the test for a ‘good’ defence strategy.’’
If you are interested in buying a copy, visit the MUP website here.
