Australia unveiled its first National Defense Strategy on Wednesday, signaling a new focus on deterring China's "coercive tactics" in a region seen as lurching toward conflict.
The 80-page document offers a gloomy assessment of Pacific security and sets out a massive increase in defense spending to retool Australia's military to cope.
"The optimistic assumptions that guided defense planning after the end of the Cold War are long gone," Defense Minister Richard Marles said in presenting the new strategy.