BOOK REVIEW | No Higher Priority: A Blueprint for Immediate Action on Australia's Defence, 2025-2028

A Chinese friend told me a couple of years ago that he had heard a senior People's Liberation Army Navy officer describe Australia as, “a juicy plum ripe for the picking”. This alarming and depressing, but intensely thought-provoking book brought that frightening notion back to me.

And while the book is aimed at an Australian readership, it is nearly as relevant to citizens and leaders, particularly military leaders, of most western and Asian developed countries. Almost all of them are hopelessly unprepared to cope with active Chinese, Russian, North Korean or Iranian belligerence or, pity help them, actual attack. Donald Trump and J. D. Vance et al have a very valid point there.