Many in the Australian strategic community were pleased to see the commitments in the government’s defence strategic update to improve the country’s defence industrial capabilities and stockpiles of strategic goods. The accompanying force structure plan …
The latest flare-up in fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that began in July and escalated in mid-September comes closest to the full-scale conflict that ensued between them in the late 1980s and early 1990s …
Planet A A recent study published in Nature Climate Change has revealed how the surface temperature of the oceans has warmed significantly in recent years, causing extreme weather events and warming the planet even further. …
Covid-19 has made a mockery of the world’s great powers. US President Donald Trump promised to ‘make America great again’, but his administration’s handling of the pandemic has been anything but great. Chinese President Xi …
In early August, the Finance Department issued a revised set of guidelines for Australia’s federal departments and agencies to apply when assessing the economic benefit of procuring high-value goods and services. Given the intense controversy …
Australia is a founding member of the Asian Development Bank and, since 1966, has directly contributed US$8.5 billion in capital subscriptions, as well as US$2.86 billion to special funds. Our annual subscription this year is …
Australians’ daily reliance on digital communications infrastructure—from smartphones and social media platforms to the National Broadband Network—is changing the nature of national security risks. Just like our networked communication patterns, contemporary security risks are becoming …
At the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the United States and China could ‘split the globe’ into separate trade and financial blocs with diverging internet …
Israel’s normalisation agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed on 15 September, signify a potentially tectonic shift in the Middle East and represent perhaps the greatest advance towards peace there in 25 years. …
Military tension in the Taiwan Strait reached a worrying level on the weekend of 19–20 September. For several days prior, People’s Liberation Army Air Force fighters and bombers had been conducting flights through the strait …
Sea state Supporting documents for the Pentagon’s Future navy force study suggest it’s considering expanding the US Navy to as many as 534 vessels, up from the service’s current target of 355 manned ships by …
New Caledonia will hold its second referendum on 4 October as part of the final self-determination process agreed to in the 1998 Noumea Accord. That agreement provides for up to three polls, two years apart, …
