In my talks with Australian politicians, leaders, policymakers, academics and NGOs, one thing is clear: Indonesia is strategically and economically important for Australia. However, not much has been said about the importance of Australia for …
The so-called Islamic State recently released a new propaganda video featuring iconic images of Melbourne, interspersed with explosions and IS fighters brandishing firearms in urban combat. What to make of such developments? Should Australia be …
In the unsettled weeks since Donald Trump’s election, many prominent voices in Australia’s strategic policy community—including Kim Beazley , Dennis Richardson, Angus Houston and of course Malcolm Turnbull—have rushed to answer the question whether Mr …
The Beat A murder every 1.5 hours At least 6,640 murders took place in El Salvador last year, making it one of the world’s deadliest nations. Though numbers have dropped more recently, the country still …
Much of the speculation about the implications of a Trump presidency for Asia suggest at least some degree of US retrenchment from the region. Former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans captured that pervasive sense of …
There was a time, immediately after German reunification in 1990, when many French feared Germany. Today, the roles are reversed. But Germans are not afraid so much of France as for it. In the wake …
A constant in Donald Trump’s electoral pitch was that wealthy allies had for too long relied on America’s willingness to backstop their national security and harvested the long-term economic rewards of keeping their own military …
The consequences of August’s #censusfail continue to reverberate in Canberra, and two reports released last week—one by the PM’s Special Adviser on Cyber Security, Alastair MacGibbon; the other by the Senate’s Economics Committee—pull no punches. …
Tensions over water are rising in Asia—and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention—after all, they threaten the safety of sea …
Although it surprised almost no-one, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announcement on 20 November that she will again stand as the Chancellor-candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Party/Christian Social Party Union (CDU/CSU) at next year’s German …
Sea State The Indian Navy’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability received a boost this past week, with the commissioning of the INS Chennai. Equipped with two ASW helicopters as well as sophisticated sonar systems, the INS …
Offshore crisis response requires a higher level of multiagency interconnectedness than ever before. However, the data overload that we all face in the Information Age inhibits networking as much as it facilitates it. To achieve …