For very good reasons, maritime security concerns, particularly those centred on the South China Sea, have featured prominently in ASEAN member states’ individual and collective agendas over the last decade. The 10 ASEAN nations face …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
Earlier this month, I wrote in The Strategist that despite law enforcement’s operational successes in terms of the number and weight of drug seizures, little progress is being made in reducing the supply. The article …
On 23 June 1972, soul singer Johnny Nash released his most popular song: ‘I can see clearly now’. His upbeat classic wasn’t a Pollyanna vision of life, but an argument for changing your perspective by …
On last week’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, most nations took the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to an international society free of illegal drugs. Police from London to Washington, Canberra to …
In February, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner, Andrew Colvin, told the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee that he faced a supply and demand challenge at a time of budget cuts. ‘The demand for …
In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government’s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia’s domestic security strategies. And with that, we …
The government’s once-in-40-years reform of domestic security arrangements with the new Department of Home Affairs provides a rare opportunity for policymakers to question assumptions about policing and law enforcement. Let’s start with the differences between the …
Deep in our Australian collective psyche is a fundamental belief that we’re ‘the lucky country’. You can’t blame us because even our national anthem says ‘our land abounds in nature’s gifts, of beauty rich and …
Last week, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin told a Senate Estimates committee that his 6,500-strong organisation faced a ‘supply and demand challenge’. The commissioner described a force experiencing greater demand for its services …
For over a decade, both of our major political parties, in the face of uncertain times, have been going forth ‘getting tough on security’. It would seem that General Melchett, Stephen Fry’s character from …
The Turnbull government argues that Australia’s national security conditions have experienced fundamental changes. These changes have been driven by the resurgence of old threats (espionage and terrorism), non-traditional national security threats (transnational organised crime) and …
In December 2017, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its latest report on opium production in Myanmar and, at face value, the news was good. Since 2015, the area of cultivated …