The second day of ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet conference has so far produced some forthright observations about the state of Australia’s naval shipbuilding industry, including the troubled AWD project. The conference’s final day coincides with …
Debate: "General"
Taiwan’s Vice Premier Simon Chang wants in on the US government’s Cyber Storm exercises. A biennial exercise series curated by the Department of Homeland security, Cyber Storm tests the capacity of agencies and critical infrastructures …
There’s a lot in the First Principles Review (FPR) of Defence that was released today. We’ll have more to say about it over the next week or two, but here’s a first look. While there’s …
China’s assertive maritime claims featured prominently in a speech from US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Harry B. Harris to the #FSFleet dinner last night. In noting that overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea …
ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet Conference kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. Opening the conference, ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings lamented the hardline politics of shipbuilding in …
In this week’s Rapid Fire we update on Boko Haram, Yemen, the Tikrit campaign, US troops in Afghanistan, chemical weapons in Syria, and the ‘Warlord Problem’ in Ukraine. Trouble continues in Nigeria as the presidential …
In this week’s flight path, we cover the Germanwings plane crash, Joint Strike Fighter close air support capability, Australia’s next Chief of Air Force, Russia’s bombers and safety deposit boxes in space. Recent revelations that …
In 1890 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published his influential geostrategic masterpiece, The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783. Mahan’s understanding of naval power and its intimate links to economic security was based on his …
Last week, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo embarked on a weeklong Northeast Asian tour beginning with Tokyo on Monday and then Beijing on Wednesday. Besides pressing the flesh and riding a bullet train, Jokowi’s aims were …
This week’s Sea State will examine some of the more prominent debates to arise from Australia’s Future Submarine Summit, the most recent forum to hold informed discussion on the trajectory of SEA 1000: the largest …
The most remarkable feature of Malcolm Fraser’s lifetime pursuit of Australia’s international interests was his journey from rock-ribbed, alliance-loving realist to green-tinged alliance decrier. Fraser’s eventual rejection of the US alliance as deeply dangerous to …
Karl Claxton’s recent Strategist post suggests that Operation Pacific Assist to cyclone-damaged Vanuatu could provide an opportunity to ‘reset regional cooperation’. As ‘practical avenues for reviving habits of cooperation’, he suggests that humanitarian assistance and …