Strategic Surprise: Enhancing National Preparedness in National Security Decision-Making

We are pleased to announce a National Industry PhD Program collaboration between University of New South Wales and STRATEGISE Australia, focused on strengthening Australia's national preparedness and resilience in an increasingly complex strategic environment. This project brings together academic expertise in national security and strategic studies with practical experience in defence innovation and strategic advisory services.

The project, "Strategic Surprise: Enhancing National Preparedness in National Security Decision-Making", investigates how governments can better anticipate, interpret and respond to strategic surprise. Building on prior research that developed an ontology of strategic surprise, the project will refine analytical criteria, examine historical and contemporary case studies, and develop a practical framework that supports improved national security planning and decision-making.

The collaboration connects UNSW Canberra's recognised expertise in strategic and security studies with Strategise Australia's practical experience supporting defence strategy, innovation, emerging technologies and capability development. Through ongoing engagement between academia, policymakers and industry stakeholders, the project aims to bridge the gap between research and practical decision-making environments.

For Strategise Australia, the project aligns directly with its core work in strategic analysis, defence innovation and emerging technologies. The resulting analytical frameworks and insights will inform strategic advisory services, capability planning and technology adoption programs undertaken on behalf of government and industry stakeholders.

Sally Burt states: this is a very timely and relevant project to help understand conflict in today’s environment of disruption and surprise. I am very please to be supervising this project along with Prof. David Kilcullen.

For UNSW Canberra, the project contributes to scholarship in strategic studies, national security and policy analysis while strengthening engagement with industry and government communities. The research will generate new insights into how institutions experience and respond to disruptive events and uncertainty.

The project is being undertaken by Andrew Kirby , an existing PhD student with extensive experience in Defence and national security. The research provides an opportunity to combine academic rigour with practical strategic advisory work, contributing to improved national security decision-making and capability planning.

The project aims to produce a practical analytical framework that helps governments and national security institutions better anticipate and manage strategic surprise. The research has implications for defence capability planning, emerging technology adoption, supply chain resilience and broader national preparedness, supporting Australia's Defence Capability priorities.

Campus Plus #DoE #UNSW
Artha Arthavelina, Simon Kalucy, Natalee-Jewel Kirby