As China expands its reach around the globe, it is important to understand not only its foreign, economic and security policies but also its massive covert operations. Roger Faligot, an investigative journalist who specialises in …
Debate: "General"
In its negotiations with the European Union over post-Brexit trade relations, the British government has become entrenched in its demands for full sovereignty. In the future, it wants to determine all of the rules about …
Australia heads towards a dismal achievement: halving what it spends on diplomacy in only three decades. The Joe Biden rule (‘Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value’) says Australia has …
In the final episode of Policy, Guns and Money for 2020, The Strategist’s Brendan Nicholson, Anastasia Kapetas and Jack Norton share their thoughts on the key events and geopolitical developments of 2020, and the areas …
Christmas sometimes brings presents you don’t expect—this year, for me, an excitingly titled ‘Request for expressions of interest’ that appeared on AusTender is one of them. It’s about Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of …
While the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted attention away from Hong Kong’s fight for democratic freedoms, protests have made the city a focus of the Chinese government’s authority and stance on human rights. Recent events have …
Data has been referred to as the ‘new oil’ or ‘new gold’, but it’s more than that. Most organisations can’t function without it. That applies equally to governments. Australian government data creation, collection, storage and …
When the struggling street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on 17 December 2010, he could not possibly have imagined how consequential his desperate protest would be. By sparking a wave …
To our national detriment, much of the public discussion on war crimes alleged to have been committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan is focusing on secondary, peripheral or irrelevant issues. Some public confusion has resulted …
The subsidiary of a Chinese defence conglomerate nicknamed ‘the Huawei of airport security’ is increasingly dominant in border-control and security-screening technologies globally. Last month, Canada’s foreign affairs department backflipped on its plan to buy security …
The Kingdom of Morocco has come full circle in its relations with Israel and its stance on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence. It has revived its 1990s approach by recognising the Jewish state …
In an already acrimonious year for Australia–China relations, an ‘utterly outrageous’ tweet from a mid-level official at China’s foreign affairs ministry shows the extent to which the Chinese-language media environment is being shaped by the …