Debate: "General"
China’s AI talent ‘arms race’

Perhaps, the real ‘arms race’ in artificial intelligence (AI) is not military competition but the battle for talent. Since the vast majority of the world’s top AI experts remain in the US, China is starting …

Big chill between China and Australia

The fifth icy age has descended on China–Australia relations—cooling business, frosting diplomacy and chilling strategic perspectives. China has put Australia into diplomatic ‘deep freeze’. China speaks of ‘a growing lack of mutual trust’, accusing Australia …

Life less joyous

In a recent article in The Australian, Peter Jennings characterised the Putin regime, along with those of several other authoritarian leaders, as ‘Leninist’. This seems to me both historically inaccurate and unhelpful in understanding the …

Missile strikes are not a Syria strategy

‘A perfectly executed strike…Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished.’ So tweeted US President Donald Trump just hours after more than a hundred American, French, and British cruise missiles hit three sites in …

ASPI suggests

The world The justifications put forward by allied nations to strike the Assad regime in Syria last week rest on the fact that using chemical weapons is unequivocally unacceptable. Three powerful pieces—one each from Andrew …

The West’s crisis of confidence

In an age defined by US President Donald Trump’s rage, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revisionism and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unbridled ambition, the international order is becoming increasingly disorderly, dysfunctional and even dangerous. How did …

Building a brilliant ADF

In 2017, a US Department of Defense study of the future operating environment described artificial intelligence (AI) as the most disruptive technology of our time. In this environment, says the report: big data techniques interrogate …

If a project is approved in a forest …

One of the key elements of the government’s strategy for national defence is an ambitious recapitalisation of the Australian Defence Force. The 2016 Defence White Paper and its supporting Defence Integrated Investment Program (IIP) announced …