Imagine that Australia released a Defence White Paper that refused even in the most veiled terms to discuss China’s destabilising policies in the South China Sea, which didn’t mention Indonesia or Papua New Guinea, and …
Articles by: "Peter Jennings"
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. In the August 2013 version of Agenda for Change, I suggested four big reforms for the incoming government: Develop a …
Paul Dibb The former Secretary of Defence, Tony Ayers, who died last week aged 82, was truly the last of the Mandarins in Canberra. He served as a permanent head of five departments for almost …
A wide brown land needs a big, big defence policy and Australia has received that very thing with this morning’s delivery of the 2016 Defence White Paper. Conceived in 2013, gestating like a humongous pearl …
Credible reports are circulating that China has deployed an HQ-9 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system and an associated targeting radar to Woody Island, part of the Paracel group of islands in the South China Sea. Woody …
Dan Tehan’s arrival as the Minister for Defence Materiel—as well as Veterans Affairs and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC—is the latest in a long parade of junior Defence Ministers over …
Today is a momentous day for Myanmar, as Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) takes its place in the country’s parliament, ending decades of authoritarian rule. Following its massive win in last …
The last time I saw David Hale was at a dinner in a restaurant at the Griffith shops in Canberra. He was passing through Australia on one of his regular visits and suggested we get …
ASPI lost a good friend and long-time supporter in the Hon Jim Carlton AO, who passed away on Christmas Day 2015. Jim was the personal nominee of then Prime Minister John Howard when appointed to …
Dr Martin Parkinson will soon begin his role as the new Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, succeeding Michael Thawley. Both are highly capable individuals and both have suffered from the lottery of Australian Public …
Evidence presented to Senate Estimates hearings on 21 October over the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company shines new light on the elements of the decision. The issue points to …
The fifth annual Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conference on the South China Sea, held in Washington DC last Wednesday, was a quality event, where knowledgeable experts rubbed shoulders with senior politicians and …