In the year or so since ASPI released its National Food Security Preparedness Green Paper, its argument that Australia should strengthen its food system as a matter of national security has been reinforced with uncomfortable …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
Australia’s economic security debate still focuses on the physical elements of supply chains: mines, ports, processing plants, shipping routes and stockpiles. Beijing has moved further. China increasingly treats knowledge about supply chains as a strategic …
Today marks the launch of the Darwin Dialogue 2026 report, From Exposure to Endurance: competitive endurance architecture for high-ESG mineral-specific supply chains. Australia and its partners have spent much of the past decade debating why …
Chinese reactions to Treasurer Jim Chalmers’s decision to order six China-linked investors to divest their holdings in Northern Minerals tells us far more than the decision itself. China’s Global Times publication condemned the move as …
For decades, Australia assumed economic power flowed from geology. Resource wealth delivered export earnings, government revenue and strategic confidence. The emergence of China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) over the past four years suggests otherwise. In …
Governments still organise around discrete shocks, yet the operating environment increasingly delivers continuous, concurrent and cascading pressures across economic, social, technological and environmental systems. Australia needs to shift from managing shocks to managing interacting risks, …
Japan’s decision to train again in Townsville makes operational sense. Still, it exposes a deeper strategic problem in how Australia is shaping its northern defence posture. The choice aligns with Japan’s immediate training needs. Yet …
Northern Australia is often described as constrained by distance, workforce and cost. That framing misses the point. By any other definition, it’s a greenfield industrial system, with abundant energy, world-class mineral endowment, available land and …
Supply chains built for efficiency are colliding with a world defined by disruption. In this context, Australia now faces a structural challenge in securing critical inputs such as fuel and fertiliser. Government, industry and consumers …
The Australian government’s decision to curtail the Inland Rail Project was politically brave. Governments rarely walk away from troubled megaprojects once billions have been spent and expectations have hardened. Yet the real issue sits well …
Strategic competition now extends far beyond military capability and economic strength. Liberal democracies therefore have a strategic interest in cultivating a confident civic patriotism that strengthens social cohesion, reinforces institutional legitimacy and supports national resilience. …
The Northern Territory still struggles to convert opportunity into sustained economic growth because workforce shortages, weak enabling infrastructure and slow approvals continue to choke investment. With the May budgets in Darwin and Canberra fast approaching, …