About Sarah
Thirteen years of naval service and international operational deployments has exposed Lieutenant Commander Sarah Lucinsky to Australia’s maritime vulnerabilities and the challenges they pose to Australia’s national resilience. She strongly believes that Australia’s prosperity and national security depends upon the sea. And yet she sees the threat of commerce raiding (the deliberate targeting and disruption of maritime trade as an instrument of economic and strategic coercion) is under researched as a tool that could be deployed against a maritime-dependent Australia. She argues that recent supply chain disruptions (COVID, Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz crises) have laid bare Australia’s vulnerabilities when maritime trade is disrupted. Sarah will study an MPhil in War Studies at King’s College London to address gaps in our understanding. Her work will build an original historical database of commerce raiding campaigns and then use proxy indicators to measure and model the cost imposition and strategic effects of these campaigns to inform crisis planning today. The MPhil will enable Sarah to combine her operational experience with rigorous research to address what is now an undeniable national vulnerability. Sarah’s work will develop actionable insight for Australian defence and economic policy and strengthen Australia’s supply chain resilience.
