The Bangkok office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned in recent reports that Australia is part of organised crime networks involved in trafficking in wildlife and timber, people-smuggling and money-laundering. Counterfeit …
Debate: "General"
Since its October release in draft form, China’s new coastguard law has been the subject of dozens of news reports and analyses. Maritime law enforcement legislation rarely attracts such international attention, but in this case …
Observers of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia can’t have missed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s declaration a year ago that the two countries enjoyed a level of ‘trust that underpins only the truest of …
Speaking in Kabul on 14 February on the 32nd anniversary of the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, made an important distinction. The civil war that devastated Afghanistan after the withdrawal …
Each night for more than a week, unregistered flights between Yangon and Kunming have been transporting unknown goods and personnel from China to Myanmar. The military regime that’s now in charge of Myanmar is trying …
The Australian government has released its mid-year budget update in the form of the portfolio additional estimates statements. If you’re looking for screaming headline material in the defence portfolio’s PAES you may be disappointed. But …
As the global rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 gathers pace, there are already reports of a vibrant black market for the various vaccine candidates. A black market usually springs up fairly quickly when there’s a …
Decades after the Cold War, Russia remains the perfect enemy, with an unmatched ability to agitate Europe’s political class. But the intensity of European debates and emotions regarding Russia masks a growing unity that should …
‘Australia’s strategic environment has deteriorated more rapidly than anticipated … Our region is in the midst of the most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War … The Indo-Pacific is at the centre of …
When Vietnam’s communist party held its national congress on 1 February, many thought it would be a turning point similar to that of the Doi Moi reforms of the 1980s. ASPI’s Huong Le Thu and …
Is Xi Jinping more Hitlerian or Stalinist in his view of Chinese socialism? The answer to that question is important because it bears on the policy choices China’s adversaries will need to make. George Kennan, …
A wind of political change seems to be suddenly blowing across the troubled Middle East. Egyptian authorities have unexpectedly freed an Al Jazeera journalist from jail and Saudi Arabia has conditionally released a human rights …