Spy chief Nick Warner on the security threats facing Australia, from terrorism to North Korea
The list of security threats to Australia is "almost endless" and greater than ever before.
That's the view of spy chief Nick Warner, who says a rapidly evolving security environment is creating a unique set of challenges.
"Australia is facing some of the most challenging strategic circumstances that it has for decades," Mr Warner told RN's Geraldine Doogue in a rare interview.
"The world is more complex and arguably more dangerous than it was."
As director-general of the newly-established Office of National Intelligence (ONI [not itself a "spy" agency--see bottom of webpage for full intel community https://www.oni.gov.au/]), Mr Warner's responsibilities include daily intelligence briefings to the prime minister.
He says he could list "90 or 100" current security risks.
Here are six of the biggest.
China-US competition
"China's rise is vitally important to Australia's economic prosperity," Mr Warner says.
"Has been, is now, will be in future."
But he warns intensified competition between China and the United States will impact Australia.
A myriad of tensions between the two superpowers, including territorial disputes over the South China Sea and the East China Sea, have long been identified as creating geopolitical risk.
"Under Xi Jinping, China has become increasingly confident and Xi is determined to deliver China's 'national rejuvenation', he said, by 2049," Mr Warner says.
"'I think what we have to always bear in mind is that we have different political values.
"And if we as Australians are cognisant of that we can better manage the challenges that will inevitably occur in the bilateral relationship from time to time."
Technological change
Mr Warner says accelerating technological change is "not only changing the business of intelligence; it's changing the entire world".
He identifies innovations in nanotechnology, quantum computing, synthetic biology, facial recognition and gait recognition as particularly significant [read on]...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-06/australia-spy-chief-nick-warner-biggest-threats-to-the-nation/10974214
