The Dragon and the Snakes: Emerging and Future Security Threats in the Post-Cold War Order: Dr. David Kilcullen – 2016 Blamey Oration

On November 9, Dr. David Kilcullen delivered the first Blamey Oration in the ACT in over a decade. The Blamey Oration typically explores contemporary strategic defence and security issues, or strategic leadership. In a wide-ranging address, Kilcullen foreshadowed an ever more chaotic world as state (dragons) and non-state (snakes) actors combine to challenge Western supremacy using a combination of conventional and unconventional techniques, threatening to overwhelm Western decision makers who are already war weary and lack the will to respond.