The South Pacific lives in interesting times—a ‘crowded and complex region’ is the phrase of the moment—and the times made for an interesting Pacific Islands Forum meeting earlier this month. Climate change roils. China pushes. …
Debate: "General"
When Australians remember 1918, the climactic year of World War I, they give a prominent place to the Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918. Often celebrated as the perfect battle, Hamel gave the …
The world Bashar al-Assad’s forces downed a Russian military plane over Syria on Monday night, killing all 15 Russians on board. Consult the New York Times for the resulting blame-game from the Kremlin, which initially …
Chinese influence in the South Pacific is growing. Through ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, Beijing is extending a spur off its Maritime Silk Road that runs across the South China Sea and into Papua New Guinea and the …
Every day we carry our lives on digital devices tucked in our pockets. But public trust in those devices has reached an all-time low thanks to scandals ranging from election interference by Russian hackers to …
In the wake of the recent North Korea – South Korea summit, it has become clearer than ever how Kim Jong-un defines ‘denuclearisation’: it’s a series of limited unilateral declarations which constrain the North’s nuclear …
The relationship between the Australian and Chinese governments would benefit from a clearer declaration from Australia about what is and is not in our national interest in engaging with the Chinese state and economy. This …
The beat Private security service supplements police Residents of Glastonbury in the UK are considering hiring a private security company to help combat rising crime and anti-social behaviour. Equipped with handcuffs and body-worn cameras, security …
For Australian policymakers, the security advantages of the Antarctic Treaty would seem to be hiding in plain sight. The luxury of a secure, demilitarised southern neighbourhood saves us a great deal of money and kit. …
The mid-August standoff between Hui Muslims and Chinese officials seeking to demolish the new Weizhou Grand Mosque in Ningxia may not have garnered the same global attention as the mass internment of Uyghur and Kazakh …
Followers of The Strategist may have seen the recent dialogue on the Defence Department’s Project LAND 400 between Marcus Hellyer and Jim Molan. Few subjects generate more emotion inside Defence than force structures, especially when …
With the RAAF’s first two operational joint strike fighters arriving in early December, long-time critics have launched a fresh wave of claims that the aircraft is a disaster. Early in September, a writer in a …