‘The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, …
Vital new dimensions overtake the ‘C’ cliches of Australia’s old relationship with India—cricket, curry and Commonwealth. The new C words are community and commerce and contest in the Indo-Pacific—and China. Community is a concept broad …
Australia sees itself as the natural leader of the South Pacific. The preferred senior-partner synonyms these days are ‘partner of choice’ and ‘principal security partner’. Australian leadership ambition has a deep-seated strategic denial instinct, the …
The five-year icy age between Australia and China has wound down. The leaders have met, and enough fitful warmth has returned to melt a few icicles. The icy age can be mapped and dated as …
When the cabinet archives on Australia’s decision to go to war against Iraq appeared on 1 January, the cupboard was astonishingly bare. No formal submission went to cabinet on Australia joining the invasion of Iraq …
Pick your response: Big Brother is watching, perhaps? A passport snap on a really bad day? The worst school photo ever? Maybe it can be a read as a wanted poster that asks: ‘Do you …
Thucydides trap: from the Greek historian’s statement that the alarm of the established power at the challenge of the rising power makes war inevitable. The Asia–Pacific ponders the growing chances of war. Australia’s policy community …
At the mid-point of Labor’s three-year term, the international strategy and statecraft of the new government is more fully formed than its domestic identity. Global turmoil—the polycrisis—has quickly tested and tempered the government’s world view. Whatever …
The APEC summit in San Francisco this week offers poignant echoes and painful contrasts with the first summit in Seattle 30 years ago. Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation is always ‘four adjectives in search of a noun’, …
The phrase ‘great and powerful friend’ is a totem of Australian defence, setting strategy since federation. The totem’s purpose is to make and manage The Alliance—capitalise and underline it as crucial and central. The search …
The case for Australia to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rests on the challenges ASEAN confronts as much as the association’s strengths. Australia needs to take the next logical step in its long …
‘Strategy without money is just hot air.’ — Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles speaking at ASPI’s 2023 conference, 14 September, Canberra At ASPI’s national conference, the deputy PM and defence minister was …