In the years leading up to the global Covid-19 crisis, Australia, like many countries, failed to heed health specialists’ warnings on the likelihood and consequences of a global pandemic. Critical pandemic readiness was an insurance …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
Around the globe, transnational serious and organised crime groups’ traditional business models are being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of these groups are in uncharted waters. Gareth Rice’s recent Strategist post, ‘Narcos in the …
In their prophetic 2018 book, The end of epidemics, authors Jonathan Quick and Bronwyn Fryer warned that ‘a severe worldwide pandemic could cost the global economy up to [US]$2.5 trillion.’ They also warned of the …
ASPI’s Counterterrorism yearbook 2020, released today, was drafted at a time of upheaval in the global system. Like now, interstate tensions were on the rise and the global system was going through a drastic change. …
In October 1942, Edward Ward, the minister for labour and national services, accused the Australian government of having planned to abandon the country’s north in the event of a Japanese invasion. While the ‘Brisbane Line’ …
The Chinese government was likely well aware of Australia’s plans to significantly enhance the Royal Australian Air Force base at Tindal in the Northern Territory before it was announced last month. Nonetheless, the government’s decision …
While Australians are often hawkish about community safety and border security, they’re far less accepting of their security agencies being given new domestic surveillance powers without government making a strong case for their use. You …
This week, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally raised concerns that there are now around 50,000 people awaiting deportation from Australia. All of them arrived by plane and applied for asylum in Australia, but their …
ASPI’s ‘The north and Australia’s security’ program has just turned one. Over the past year, more than 30 pieces have been published under the banner of the program’s ‘North of 26° south’ Strategist series. Authors …
When the Australian law enforcement community continues to regularly break drug seizure records, it’s easy to assume that the supply of illicit drugs is being curtailed. Alarmingly, that’s not happening, and the government now needs …
When you consider the complexity of the Moro Islamic insurgency in the southern Philippines and the diverse motivations of the groups involved, it’s all too easy to be pessimistic about the prospects for a peaceful …
Last week, the Chinese government demonstrated its continued mastery of multi-layered messaging. Nary a news media outlet in the world failed to cover the show-stopping, muscle-flexing military parade held in Beijing to celebrate the 70th …