Australia’s growing role in US regional planning offers real advantages—yet it also demands clear boundaries to protect national decision-making, ensure genuine autonomy and strengthen long-term resilience across the north.

Growing climate shocks across the region highlight how resilience must link local readiness with national planning—ensuring communities can withstand disruption while keeping wider risks from escalating. Civil emergencies reveal gaps in national resilience.

Undersea cables face growing physical and cyber threats. Australia is assessing risks and capabilities to safeguard these links—vital to national stability and daily life—as cyber operations become fully active and central to modern security.

The article argues that Australia must build a self-reliant defence industry by 2035, mandating minimum SME participation and cutting red tape to reduce dependency on foreign suppliers and strengthen national security and economic resilience.

Trauma disrupts the brain’s survival circuitry, disabling rational control and keeping the body in high alert. Evidence-based therapies can rewire neural pathways, restoring regulation between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex for recovery and resilience.

Trusted AI will only emerge if security keeps pace with rapid threats — weak safeguards erode confidence, slow adoption, and expose systems to faster attacks; strong controls build resilience and enable safe, long-term use.

The brain can temporarily quiet trauma-linked networks when facing mild stress, a response linked to better emotional health. This adaptive mechanism may help individuals cope and maintain resilience during new challenges.

Resilience reduces incentives for strategic disruption. Strong, adaptable infrastructure makes disruption far less rewarding for hostile actors—reducing the appeal of coercion by proving that essential systems can withstand pressure and recover quickly.

People who act decisively succeed more often. Emotional control helps turn plans into action. Those who hesitate under pressure generally achieve less—especially when goals are tough or demand persistence.

The USS Neosho survived Pearl Harbor but was lost in the Coral Sea. A determined sailor protected others during deadly attacks — showing how steady action under pressure can preserve hope, even when the situation appears hopeless.