Some weeks ago it was already clear that the Abbott government would face tough decisions about Iraq in the near future. That assessment was correct but understated. To be successful, Australia’s political and military leaders …
Debate: "General"
Australia, South Korea and Indonesia used their status to play coy on joining China’s new development bank. Canberra, Seoul and Jakarta felt they could stand back and await further blandishment while 20 Asian nations joined …
It’s a fair bet that the Republic of Somaliland isn’t well known to most Australians. That’s a pity, because it’s certainly an instructive case. Born in a separatist struggle against Mogadishu, the little statelet has …
Here’s a question for readers of The Strategist who’ve been fascinated by the last fortnight of reflections on Gough Whitlam’s legacy. What’s the major area of policy, front and centre in today’s political debate, where …
In his recent ASPI paper Peter Leahy provides a bracing warning—that we may be fighting radical Islam for 100 years. Lieutenant General Leahy points out not only the global nature of this threat, but also …
Tomorrow, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, now entering a third term after September’s general election, is going to do something very rare in his leadership: he’ll be delivering a major speech on security. The …
At the centre of Australian strategic policy lies a puzzle: how do we grow a responsibility-sharing order in an Asia of rapidly shifting power relativities? The traditional answer has been to nurture new forms of …
The inaugural National Mosque Open Day occurred on Saturday 25 October, launched by the Lebanese Muslim Association and supported by the Department of Social Services. It coincided with the National Day of Unity declared by …
Imagine you decided to do your weekly grocery shopping this way: you go into Coles or SuperBarn and tell the manager that you haven’t been spending enough on groceries and henceforth have set yourself a …
Andrew Davies invited a response to his recent post on Northern Australia. So I thought I would provide one. My sense is that the whole country was a ‘power projection’ base in World War 2—as …
Earlier this month Army released a discussion paper on a Joint Archipelagic Manoeuvre Concept. It’s a brief document, so probably still a work in progress. An idea at its heart—the support of air and sea …
Just a few years ago a number of books were released which celebrated an ‘Australia moment’, where the nation was in ‘The Sweet Spot’. Today’s book titles, however, seem to run the other way, with …