The defence review says Australia is at little risk of a land invasion – but that’s not where the threats end

Anthony Albanese says the defence strategic review reflects Australia’s ‘most challenging strategic circumstances since the second world war’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AP

Australia’s defence strategic review paints an alarming picture of the “radically different” security outlook in the Indo-Pacific, including the risk of “major conflict in the region that directly threatens our national interest”.

But it is important to be very clear about what Monday’s document does and doesn’t say about the threats Australia faces.