Feeding the nuclear watch dog

Earlier this month, Myanmar announced that it will sign the Additional Protocol to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements—a bold step for a country that has long been suspected of having nuclear …

ASPI suggests: welcome to the Iron Dome

Welcome back for another instalment of new reports, articles and events in the defence, strategy and security world. Articles Iron Dome has been seen as a successful missile defence system during recent violence between Israel …

What the Kiwis want from trans-Tasman defence relations

It’s hard to get folks excited about the Australian–New Zealand defence relationship. It’s uncontroversial because we’re already close partners in a fairly low octane South Pacific neighbourhood, where we’re expected to work together. And it’s …

Canada, the Asian Century and the Indo-Pacific

Australia and Canada, I have argued elsewhere, are Strategic Cousins with more in common than most people realise. The Eurocentric Mercator projection leaves the impression that Canada is far removed from Asia. But in reality …

Submarine building as corporate welfare

I read Katherine Ziesing’s recent piece on The Strategist, with interest. Unfortunately, as a[n economic] ‘dry’ approaching Thatcher-esque levels, I must disagree with some of her points. My big concerns with the Future Submarine project …

Taking stock of RAMSI

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI)—an extensive (and expensive) Australian-led state-building intervention under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)—has been operating in Solomon Islands since July 2003. It’s about to undergo …