Twenty years ago today, on a Thursday morning, an innocuous white delivery van stuttered towards the gate of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Seconds later, an explosion shattered windows for blocks around and left 10 …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
It’s a pity that strategic geography isn’t on the agenda of a leading defence exhibition next week, because Defence and the Australian Army could well use a chance to talk with others about how better …
Australian communities are teetering on the edge of a second methylamphetamine crisis that, if not addressed urgently, will lead to widespread health and safety issues. To deal with this emerging epidemic, the Albanese government must …
Australia’s international engagement on terrorism has diminished markedly since counter-terrorism successes in neighbouring Indonesia and the Philippines, Australia’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the winding down of the global war on terrorism and the reduction …
China has announced new controls over the production of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, the deadly illicit drug that’s killing thousands of Americans every year. But the new controls do nothing to dismantle the …
Which cabinet minister has responsibility for counter-terrorism in Australia? Our national security dictates that it shouldn’t be a difficult question given, to misquote Mark Twain, reports of terrorism’s demise have been revealed as exaggerated. In …
‘I cannot foresee a time when you will cease to be dangerous …. I cannot envisage you being freed without the most cogent evidence of a change of mindset.’ So remarked Justice Mark Wall in …
In 2024, Australian security relies on maintaining a resilient democracy and an underlying strong civil society as much as it does on secrecy to protect sensitive information from foreign or domestic threat actors. For two …
Over the last few months, Australia has witnessed the tragic Bondi attack, Wakely Church stabbing, Sydney University stabbing, and an alleged attempted terrorist attack on the offices of NSW MLA Tim Crakanthorp. Today, in response …
Politicking by the Chinese Communist Party has blocked Taiwanese membership of Interpol since 1984, preventing the timely sharing of criminal information and intelligence. The absence of Taiwan in the world’s largest international police organisation weakens …
While Australia and its critical-minerals partners agree that supply-chain diversity, security and sustainability are essential, inconsistent national policies continue to inhibit the development of the end-to-end supply chains they seek. In the dynamic landscape of …
Great-power competition between the United States and China continues to weaken multilateralism and the rules-based order. Despite that, the system is far from dead. Autocratic states increasingly seek to interact with international institutions in ways …