Ideas@theHouse

presented by

Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC
Governor of NSW

“Navigating Strategic Uncertainty: Space, Cyber and National Support in a Fractured World”

Lieutenant General Susan Coyle AM DSC CSC
Chief of Joint Capabilities
Australian Defence Force

Date: Thursday, 12 March 2026, 6.30 – 8.00 pm AEDT
Venue: Face-to-face (by invitation for Society members) and live streaming from Government House, Sydney
Entry: No charge
All are welcome to the live stream. Members will receive an invitation to the face-to-face event

Summary: The global strategic environment is entering a period of accelerating instability marked by intensifying competition between major powers, growing assertiveness from authoritarian states, and an increasingly volatile security landscape that transcends traditional boundaries. Strategic alignment between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea is reshaping geopolitical balances and challenging the rules-based international order on which Australia’s security and prosperity have long depended. These developments are occurring alongside rapid technological disruption and an expanding grey zone in which state and non-state actors compete below the threshold of armed conflict—using influence operations, cyber intrusions, economic coercion, disinformation and space-based capabilities to exploit strategic ambiguity.

Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, Head of Space Command, Commander of the Defence Cyber and Information Domain, and leader of Defence’s National Support Division, sits at the nexus of Australia’s response to this shifting environment. Her portfolio covers the domains where these tensions are most acutely manifest: the contested theatre of space, now central to communications, navigation, intelligence and economic continuity; the cyber and information battlespace, where daily intrusions probe national vulnerabilities; and the essential systems of national support, mobilisation and resilience required to sustain Defence operations in an era of compressed warning time

Her address will explore how Australia must navigate this new reality: the emergence of strategic blocs, the rise of persistent grey-zone activity, the fragility of critical infrastructure and supply chains, and the growing inseparability of physical and virtual domains. She will highlight the need for integrated national preparedness, deeper partnerships between government, industry and the research community, and innovative approaches to capability, deterrence and resilience. This Ideas@theHouse offers Fellows and Members of the Royal Society of NSW and invited guests a unique opportunity to engage with these issues in discussion with one of Australia’s most forward-looking senior Defence leaders.

Lieutenant General Susan Coyle is one of the Australian Defence Force’s most senior and influential leaders, with a career spanning more than three decades across command, operations, intelligence, cyber and advanced capability development. She currently serves as Commander, Joint Capabilities, where she leads Space Command and Defence’s integrated Information and Cyber Domain, as well as National Support Division, which is responsible for preparedness, logistics governance, mobilisation planning, estate management, humanitarian assistance and national resilience partnerships. This portfolio places her at the centre of Australia’s response to the accelerating complexity of modern strategic competition.

Commissioned into the Australian Army in 1992, General Coyle has held command appointments at every level, including Commander, Joint Task Force 633 in the Middle East, Commander of the 6th Combat Support Brigade, Director General Cyber Warfare and Army Land Forces Command. She has served on operations in Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and the wider Middle East, where she earned distinguished recognition for leadership in high-pressure joint and coalition environments. Her decorations include appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), and the Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC).

General Coyle is a nationally respected strategic thinker on the intersections of technology, national resilience and defence preparedness. Her work increasingly focuses on integrating scientific innovation, digital transformation and sovereign Australian capability to strengthen national security. She is widely regarded for her clarity of communication, collaborative leadership style and ability to navigate complex, multi-domain environments in a time of unprecedented strategic uncertainty.

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