The possibility of a military conflict between China and the US over Taiwan is receiving greater attention from both military strategists and political leaders, but there has been little focus on the likely economic consequences. …
Australia, according to an unremarkable line item in the May federal budget, is making its first purchase of new tanks in almost 15 years with the upgrade of the army’s M1 Abrams tank fleet. While …
Finding a path out of the economic ashes of the Covid-19 pandemic while addressing growing tensions in our region has forced Australia to reassess its defence objectives and shift its national goal of ‘sovereign capability’ …
America is back. That was the key message US President Joe Biden sought to convey during his first trip abroad since taking office in January. But while Biden himself has rejoined the mix of global …
On 26 May, Syria held its second presidential election since the 2011 revolution. What was described by most observers as a sham yielded an unsurprising result—the re-election of Bashar Al-Assad for a fourth consecutive term …
The two-state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is a yeti—often talked about, but rarely sighted. And like the Himalayan snowfields, its habitat is shrinking. A familiar combination of domestic Israeli and Palestinian political dynamics, international …
Gendered disinformation targets women in politics and journalism Writing for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women Around the World blog, Melanne Verveer and Lucina Di Meco argue that gendered disinformation thrives on social media platforms …
ASPI celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This series looks at ASPI’s work since its creation in August 2001. The military needs kit. Cash builds capability. Such plain propositions to describe such expensive complexity. What …
The Biden administration’s 100-day review of supply-chain vulnerabilities has produced fresh insights into the United States’ dependence on China for supplies of rare earths and other critical materials but falls far short of a strategy …
Planet A A sustained mouse plague has consumed grain and hay stocks and damaged machinery on thousands of Australian farms this year, reducing the country’s overall crop value by an estimated $1 billion. While rodent …
On 1 July, the Chinese Communist Party will stage a patriotic extravaganza to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. Among the achievements it will celebrate is the Baihetan Dam, located on the Jinsha River …
References to Iran have been glaringly absent from commentary on the clash between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, even though two primary terrorist organisations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have effusively praised Tehran and its …
The success of Operation Ironside, led by the Australian Federal Police with a host of international partner agencies, hinged on the use of a messaging app thought by criminals to be encrypted. The numerous arrests …
As the military struggles to stamp out opposition on the streets and in the mountains, there is almost no good news coming out of Myanmar right now. Yet, in early June, the National Unity Government …
In 2020, Asia—especially East Asia—was often touted as a model of effective pandemic response. While Western countries endured harsh lockdowns and soaring infection and death rates, Asian countries largely kept the coronavirus under control. But …
Australia confronts a new and compounding set of security challenges. Traditional modes of geopolitics are giving way to sharper styles of statecraft, whether in the form of economic coercion, cyber espionage, disinformation or the weaponisation …
Publicly revealed by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) in 2019, China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) project—the Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP—is an early-stage endeavour to rewire the global economic system using emerging …
Amid enormous domestic and foreign-policy challenges, the oil-rich, but US sanctioned, Islamic Republic of Iran is scheduled to hold its 13th presidential election on Friday. The voters will have a choice between seven male candidates who …
The Swiss government’s recent withdrawal from long-running negotiations on a framework agreement with the European Union has triggered a deep crisis in relations. For the EU, the fallout is manageable: economic relations will erode but …
In 2019, Russia employed an intelligence-gathering satellite to make a close approach—known as a rendezvous and proximity operation, or RPO—with a US spy satellite. The incident lasted for several days as Russia’s Cosmos 2542 released …