Defence White Paper 2013.

摘要

One of the fundamental responsibilities of any Australian Government is to protect and defend our people and protect and enhance our national security interests. This requires making complex strategic judgements about risks and opportunities in the international strategic environment. It means providing for an effective and efficiently run Australian Defence Force which is able to make its contribution to meeting strategic challenges. Government must make judgements about Defence posture, operational capacity, capability, sustainment and Defence budgets and finances. This periodically requires an Australian Government to methodically review the international strategic environment and Australia's strategic settings and posture to ensure they are appropriate to changing circumstances. The 2013 White Paper addresses the range of significant international and domestic developments since 2009, which influence Australia's national security and defence settings, including their impact on force posture, future force structure and the Defence budget. These include the ongoing economic strategic and military shift to the Indo-Pacific, the Australian Defence Force's operational drawdown from Afghanistan, Timor- Leste and Solomon Islands, the United States' re-balance to the Asia-Pacific, Australia's substantially enhanced practical cooperation with the United States pursuant to our Alliance relationship, and the ongoing adverse effects of the Global Financial Crisis, which have continued to see a significant deleterious impact on the global economy, domestic fiscal circumstances and Defence funding. The Global Financial Crisis showed that strategic circumstances can change with little warning and can have significant implications for the Australian Defence Force. It also showed that it is not sensible planning to assume financial or economic circumstances will remain constant over time. This Paper outlines the capabilities that the ADF will need in the coming years.