In this podcast our strategists discuss the foreign policy and defence implications of the Liberal leadership spill and change in prime minister, the decision to ban Huawei from Australia’s 5G network and economic crisis in …
Debate: "General"
I read with interest the recent Strategist posts (here and here) written by my former colleague Andrew Davies, outlining his conversion to the anti-nuclear cause. Andrew’s views are always worth listening to, but on this …
The beat Prison strike over ‘modern slavery’ continues A North American prison strike, sparked by the death of seven inmates during a riot in a South Carolina jail in April, is now in its second …
If Australia weren’t so important to New Zealand, New Zealanders could relish the farce masquerading as politics in Canberra. Australians used to denigrate New Zealand’s post-1993 proportional voting system. But Helen Clark got nine years …
Marcus Hellyer’s article ‘Army must adapt to evolution in its military purchases’, published in The Australian earlier this month, reveals a number of serious problems with the prevailing wisdom about Australia’s defence. Invoking the obsolescence …
It was the autumn of 2001, sometime between the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and US President George W. Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan. I was walking through Venice with Richard C. Holbrooke, who …
Scott Morrison took a step last week that will define him as prime minister, but it wasn’t about getting party room numbers. It was his announcement as acting minister for home affairs that effectively banned two big …
‘John, I love Australians. They are freedom-loving, fierce and fun. They are so critically important for us. I fought with them in Vietnam. I have met them on battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are …
Sea state The Indian navy secretly test-fired its first indigenous nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from INS Arihant in the Bay of Bengal on 11–12 August. The B-05 missile can hit targets with nuclear warheads …
What explains Australia’s bizarre leadership churn? No prime minister has served a full term since 2007, with five different faces becoming prime minister in the last five years: Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull—and now, …
The Talking Heads’ 1985 hit ‘Road to nowhere’ provided a rather entertaining, if somewhat bleak, perspective on the futility of life: we are born, we live and we die. While we don’t necessarily agree with …
Last week, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop launched Australia’s first-ever review of soft power. It’s a bold move, flagging a new reality that Australia must engage more strategically through official and public diplomacy if it is …