Sea State In its biggest show of naval force in the Asia–Pacific since WWII, Japan has unveiled plans to send its largest warship—the Izumo helicopter carrier—on a three-month tour of the South China Sea, kicking …
We were in Washington recently for the latest annual track-2 ‘Quad Plus’ dialogue. The meeting brings together participants from think tanks in Australia, India, Japan and the United States, as well as invited “plus” nations—this …
Among many other colourful characters, Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments include two protectionist and anti-China hardliners, Robert Lighthizer and Peter Navarro, who sit at the helm of US trade and industry policy. That decision confirms a …
In 2013 followers of regional security architecture added another acronym to their already hearty alphabet soup of acronyms. The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) at its annual meeting held that year in …
Last November the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories agreed to examine the strategic importance of Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories (IOT)—the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. The Committee is looking at the …
If the Trump–Turnbull call illustrated the operatic nature of the early Trump administration, then the Trump–Abe long weekend presented an alternative picture of US alliance management under the new President. Both episodes demonstrate how leader-to-leader …
Russia’s been ruffling feathers across Europe again this week, with Ukraine accusing the Russian government of using a new virus to target its critical infrastructure as part of Russia’s ongoing cyber sabotage campaign against the …
The Timor Sea conciliation between Australia and Timor-Leste has already been the subject of some significant developments in 2017. Following a contentious period last year when Australia actively contested the competency of the Conciliation Commission, …
President Donald Trump’s critics have consistently underestimated his political communication skills, perhaps because he is so different from predecessors such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Both FDR and Reagan, after all, were known …
In a recent podcast for Foreign Policy, editor David Rothkopf interviewed Thomas Friedman about his latest book—essentially an argument for why, in 2017, we should feel optimistic about the future. Friedman’s core argument is that …
Originally published 30 March 2016. The US presence in the Indo–Asia–Pacific is transforming, and Australia has a major interest in how it unfolds. That transformation is driven in large part by China’s rise, and has …
The Beat Doing a number on profiling There’s a push for Victoria Police to collect race and ethnicity data, a move that could help monitor the effectiveness of measures to counter racial profiling. Following a …