You didn’t read about it in the Australian media, but back in August the directors-general of the Office of National Intelligence, Andrew Shearer, and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Kerri Hartland, met Timor-Leste Prime Minister …
Articles by: "Chris Taylor"
Recent research from ASPI finds that Philip Flood’s 2004 inquiry into Australian intelligence agencies proved an inflection point in the national intelligence community’s development. In addition, the Flood report grappled with a matter at the …
As I noted on the recent 20th anniversary, the Iraq war, and more particularly the intelligence failure in relation to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, initiated an inquiry the following year, conducted for the Australian …
The conduct of intelligence activities is inherently a strategic dynamic between rival actors simultaneously playing offence and defence. Analogies with war, sporting contests and competition abound. Action and reaction. Denial and deception. Or, in its …
Independent reviews of Australia’s intelligence community are undertaken every five to seven years—a schedule set by 2004’s post–Iraq war Flood report, which replaced reactive post-mortems with proactive check-ups. July will mark six years since the …
Everyone has secrets. You don’t like Nana’s fruitcake but don’t want to tell her. That’s a secret, but it’s not classified SECRET (well, unless the fruitcake has illicit ingredients, not just dried fruit). Yet from …
Do you recall the ‘Garage Girls’ from this year’s Australia Day honours? Joyce Grace, Coral Hinds and Ailsa Hale were recognised for their pioneering service during World War II with Central Bureau, a joint US–Australian …
The next independent review of Australia’s intelligence community received welcome funding in this month’s federal budget. That should put Canberra on track to meet the five- to seven-yearly schedule set by the post-Iraq Flood review …
As Melissa Conley-Tyler and Benjamin Day have noted, ‘statecraft’ is increasingly the term of art when it comes to Australian policymaking—and, as Will Leben has observed, a welcome one. The increasing focus on statecraft in …
James Bond first appeared 70 years ago today, playing roulette at three o’clock in the morning, in former British naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming’s debut novel, Casino Royale. Rejected by three US publishers, the book …
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The subsequent failure by the forces sent into Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction commensurate with publicised Western assessments ensured that the basis for …