Last month, Stephen Kuper highlighted his concerns about the security of the global supply chain for rare-earth elements (REEs), particularly as it relates to sustaining the US defence force. Right now, it’s a bleak outlook. …
Debate: "General"
It was some years ago that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly said: ‘Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.’ His words must have come to haunt him on 23 June when Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition Republican People’s …
ASPI’s ‘War in 2025’ conference was held last month and attracted some leading thinkers in defence, strategy and policy. In this episode, you’ll hear from some of them, including senior fellow at New America, Peter …
This year is proving to be something of a watershed in technology. Government and professional bodies are considering or acting on controls around technologies such as artificial intelligence and encryption. The United States, like Australia …
The beat Australian intelligence and law enforcement agencies under scrutiny Revelations about the Australian Federal Police’s activity—such as the accessing of a journalist’s metadata nearly 60 times—have called into question the extent of intelligence and …
As the Geneva Conventions turn 70, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is changing its guide to how new weapons are reviewed. Here’s why we need to pay attention. After witnessing the Battle …
When I left government in 2018 one of my key concerns was that I didn’t think we fully understood the implications of technology for national security. Technology is going to be a core aspect of …
Last week, the US State Department designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Pakistani government officially declared the BLA a proscribed entity in 2006 following a number of terrorist …
In 2018, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong predicted that in a little over a decade the ASEAN economy will become the world’s fourth largest, behind only the US, China and that of the European …
The strategic rivalry between the United States and China poses a sharp challenge to international organisations, which are now at risk of becoming mere pawns of either power. Whether multilateral institutions can retain a role …
My latest Strategic Insights paper provides an overview of the post-caliphate Salafi-jihadi environment, focusing on the franchising strategy of al-Qaeda and Islamic State. It finds that the threat is now less ‘top-down’ than ‘bottom-up’ and …
There are few things more ridiculous than an all-male panel (‘manel’), committee or decision-making body. Aside from some very rare exceptions, why they continue to exist today is completely beyond me. Ambassador to the US …