Highly provocative and unprofessional action by the Chinese military has again put the Albanese government’s approach to relations with Beijing under pressure. So has deployment of a powerful Chinese naval flotilla close to Australia. China’s …
Samoa and Papua New Guinea’s recent experiences with cyber intrusions are the latest reminders of the urgent need for enhanced cybersecurity resilience in the Pacific. What’s needed is capacity building and coordinated response initiatives. On …
We now know the main strategist in US President Donald Trump’s administration will be Elbridge Colby, nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy. Colby is one of the most outspoken and transparent policy leaders in …
The rising use of economic coercion is a symptom of an increasingly unstable world that is struggling to contain rise of China and is no longer bound by the institutions established in the wake of …
There are smarter and more effective ways to streamline and re-strategise US foreign aid. The Trump administration is not the first Western government to envision a stronger, safer, and more prosperous country by integrating foreign aid with …
After bowing to the opposition on mandatory minimum sentences, the Australian government needs to reestablish its leadership in national security. Australia’s new anti hate crime amendment includes mandatory minimum sentencing for terrorism and certain hate …
The opening salvos of US President Donald Trump’s trade war have sent shockwaves around the world. Over the past three weeks, his administration has broken with decades of free-trade orthodoxy, threatening to impose tariffs not …
Attack missile boats are no substitutes for the Royal Australian Navy’s major warships, contrary to the contention of a 4 February 2025 Strategist article. The ships are much more survivable than attack boats and can …
The murder of six of Indonesia’s most senior army leaders on 1 October 1965 by elements of the country’s communist party became a major turning point in Indonesia’s modern history. It would bring to an …
France is still expected to unveil a long-awaited update to its Indo-Pacific strategy. This should be an opportunity for it to do more in the region. Its current Indo-Pacific strategy relies on two visions: one …
New Zealand is taking too hasty and too abrasive an approach to Pacific islands, putting leadership in the region on edge. We see this in a bungled attempt to visit Kiribati that led to a …
Disinformation campaigns targeting the Quad, a partnership between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, challenge its credibility. These campaigns, often state-linked, misrepresent Quad initiatives, exploit internal differences among its members and portray the group …
Like people in other regions, Europeans face the challenge of discerning what motives underlie US President Donald Trump’s verbal provocations. After all, what Trump really wants is often unclear, which makes it difficult to devise …
Australia must do more to shape its artificial intelligence future. The release of DeepSeek is a stark reminder that if Australia does not invest in its own AI solutions, it will remain reliant on foreign …
Year-end revelations of two new Chinese combat aircraft designs, the Chengdu J-36 and the Shenyang J-XX, should have put an end to the idea that China’s aerospace and defense industry just copies the West. Yet …
Indonesia isn’t doing enough in acquiring advanced naval and air systems. Too much money and focus are still being spent on the army, the traditionally dominant service—yet the country hardly faces a risk of a …
In the next six months there is a greater than 50 per cent chance of a terrorist attack being planned and possibly carried out in Australia. The Director-General of Security told us so on August …
In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am a professional soldier. Soldiering has consumed the whole of …
The release of the Chinese DeepSeek-R1 large language model, with its impressive capabilities and low development cost, shocked financial markets and led to claims of a ‘Sputnik moment’ in artificial intelligence. But a powerful, innovative …
Spyware is increasingly exploited by criminals or used to suppress civil liberties, and this proliferation is in part due to weak regulation. Politicians, diplomats, human rights activists and journalists have been targeted by malicious software …