Going into May’s federal election, the Australian Labor Party announced that it would undertake a defence force posture review if elected. Following the election and Labor’s win, the scope of the review increased dramatically. The …
Articles by: "John Coyne"
In many Australian policy circles, nation-building is an archaic 1970s term—a throwback to a time when the federal government built infrastructure to encourage national prosperity. Today, cash-strapped federal, state, territory and local governments often have …
For decades, Australians’ faith in globalisation and economic liberalism ensured that discussions about resilience focussed on recovery from short-term disasters. But the impacts of Covid-19 and the exponential decline in global security in recent years …
Vast and, more often than not, hidden supply and value chains underpin modern Australian life. We’ve become accustomed to, if not overly confident in, the ability of markets to meet our every need and want. …
The terms of reference for the defence strategic review provided by the government to the independent leads are just short of two pages long. The length of this document doesn’t do justice to all that …
One of the significant challenges with commodity investments is knowing when to buy and sell. Some view such investments as a form of institutionalised gambling. However, an understanding of the market, and a firm plan …
Northern Australia sits at the end of extended food supply chains of 3,000 to 4,000 kilometres in length. This feature has long been identified as a point of vulnerability for populations in the north of …
The Russo-Ukrainian war has burst the bubble of those who had assumed that future wars would be fast and furious affairs. While we have many lessons to learn from the first six months of this …
It’s been interesting to see how the combined impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have reinforced the importance of logistics. It’s prudent, however, to remember that incomplete datasets from the Russian …
Over the past decade, Australia’s law enforcement community has increasingly taken the driver’s seat in developing new thinking for policing. While that’s likely to be challenged by officials from Dubai to London, Australia’s law enforcement …
On 14 July, after months of controversy, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare publicly ruled out the possibility that his security pact with Beijing would result in a Chinese military base in his country. Many …
Northern Australia is becoming increasingly important to the United States and its Indo-Pacific presence. What is less clear for industry, community and state and territory stakeholders is what US–Australia defence cooperation looks like in northern …