Don’t give up on the Quad. The current tensions between its four members won’t overcome the underlying strengths of their relationships and lead to permanent breakdowns.
Don’t despair but don’t relax. It was a profoundly important message delivered last week by Australia’s director-general of national intelligence, Andrew Shearer. The placid period that followed the end of the Cold War, so comfortable …
Executive director Justin Bassi’s foreword for ASPI’s The Sydney Dialogue 2025, being held on 4 and 5 December. Technology is one of the most powerful forces shaping our world. It can empower societies or …
Almost six years since Covid-19 shocked the world, the risk is that pandemic readiness slips precisely as the conditions for the next outbreak intensify. At the end of 2019, the world was not dealing with …
The landmark critical minerals agreement between Australia and the United States is vital to both nations’ security and sovereignty. Like AUKUS, it is about competing with China. But to enable it we now need also …
The frequency with which Australia’s director-general of security now addresses the public should give us pause. Before Director-General Mike Burgess, leaders of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) rarely spoke beyond closed briefings. Today, those …
Australia has closed a critical gap in national security legislation to ensure the government can designate foreign state entities as sponsors of terrorism and criminalise support for them. The Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of …
One doesn’t need to be a sceptic of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to question whether its much vaunted ‘centrality’ as a regional organisation has value beyond rhetoric. Three big meetings will be …
On 9 October, ASPI appeared at Senate estimates. The following article is ASPI executive director Justin Bassi’s opening statement. The original can be viewed here, and the session can be found here. Good afternoon, Chair …
Japan, India and Australia’s converging interests would be fortified by a Japan-ASEAN-Australia-India economic corridor championed by the United States. Japan and India—the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest economies, respectively—are determinedly deepening their bilateral partnership amid Chinese …
No country can be prosperous without engaging the world, but just as we are mindful about who we let into our own homes, we should consider that not all foreign engagement is welcome. That’s why …
The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the United States on 10 September should jolt us all, regardless of politics or geography. But a key question is what we are jolted into doing. Should …











