Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Asia’s trend and temperature

Trend stories are always about the warmth of the water and the health of the frog. How close to boiling is the water, how much capacity does the frog have to respond? Asia’s darkest trend …

To shake or axe the Defence diarchy

The federal government is to consider recommendations for the biggest changes to the top of the Defence Department in 40 years.The biggest one is to kill off the Defence diarchy—the joint rule by the Secretary …

ASIO (4): terrorism, transparency and traitors

The age of Jihadists coincides with the blizzard of Snowden. For Australia’s security services, that means the time of terrorism collides with the time of transparency. Completely different sets of questions mingle and clash. Stir …

ASIO (3): Giving up the secrets

‘The whole idea of publishing a detailed history of an intelligence organisation based on its classified files seems counterintuitive. Intelligence organisations trade in secrecy. If they reveal their sources, the sources will dry up. If …

ASIO (2): the spooks and Oz politics

For decades, the Australian Labor Party hated the spooks with a passion. Indeed, many Australians still maintain that deep distrust of their domestic security service. For Labor, though, the hatred of ASIO—the Australian Security Intelligence …

ASIO (1):  the intelligence jewels and the alliance

Australia set up a domestic security and spy-catching service to secure intelligence access to the US and Britain. Without the service—the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation—the formal alliance with the US might not have happened. If …

And the Madeleine goes to….

The contestants are on stage for the annual Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest in international affairs. The previous column announced the minor prizes: the OOPS (I wish I hadn’t…) …

China as Number One, Japan as Normal

In 2014, China arrived as the economic Number One and Japan arrived as a ‘normal’ security player in Asia. China confronts the many meanings and huge character test of being the biggest. Japan has just …