The normalisation of relations with Israel by Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates was choreographed to help the domestically embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. It essentially cements Netanyahu’s long-standing …
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered an upbeat assessment in her first annual policy report to the European Parliament this month. Clearly, the agreement this summer on an unprecedented €750 billion recovery fund …
Australian specialist in Russian polar strategy Elizabeth Buchanan has urged lawmakers in the United States to reconsider key assumptions about the impact of the China–Russia relationship on strategic issues in the Arctic. The following is …
Washington has delivered on its threat to implement a new round of economic and arms-control sanctions against Iran. On 21 September, the White House issued an executive order targeting 27 entities and individuals involved in …
Beijing’s party-controlled legal system and two-million-person Ministry of Public Security are key tools for clamping down on internal dissent and ensuring that the information available to China’s citizens perpetuates the Chinese Communist Party’s rule. This …
On 30 April, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence declared that ‘the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified’. This statement was issued on behalf of the 17 organisations that make …
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently declared that aggression and expansionism have never been in the Chinese nation’s ‘genes’. It is almost astonishing that he managed to say it with a straight face. Aggression and …
The proposed TikTok partnership deal between US-based companies Oracle and Walmart and China-based ByteDance fails to address the concerns associated with user data being tied to a Chinese company. Even if majority ownership goes to …
Getting other countries to openly defer to China’s interests has long been viewed by China’s leaders as a symbol of their international worth. When that can no longer be done, or at least becomes much …
Following its territorial losses in Iraq and Syria and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to tighter territorial, border and air controls, the Islamic State may seek to use unconventional methods …
In any normal year, I would be in New York City now for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly. The event represents the greatest concentration of global policymakers in one place and …
That the Chinese ‘superapp’ WeChat is subject to political control by the Chinese Communist Party is no secret; many studies have tracked its powerful censorship regime over time and documented the content that is routinely …
The United Kingdom has leapt up the list of Australia’s major export markets from the 11th to the 5th most important in the space of the last 12 months. It is not a Brexit-tinged fondness …
Sea state The US has announced a plan to expand its navy from 293 ships to more than 355. The decision comes just two weeks after a Department of Defense report acknowledging that China now …
If Australia’s relationship with China continues to deteriorate, part of Beijing’s response could be to put more effort into challenging our strategic interests in our immediate region—the South Pacific. This is happening already in Papua …
After an unseemly scramble that raised concerns about cronyism, economic nationalism and Sino-American tensions, it appears as though the Trump administration’s threat to ban TikTok in the US will result in a new ‘partnership’ with …
Amid the many political crises of 2020, progress towards the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has attracted practically no attention. Yet this ‘mega-regional’ free trade agreement is of massive significance for the Indo-Pacific. On arrival, RCEP …
After the outbreak of Covid-19 earlier this year, some predicted that the pandemic’s economic reverberations in Sri Lanka would lead China to increase its already considerable funding to the island state. Indeed, as early as …
An open letter signed by 103 experts recently called for the US to re-embrace its Cold War strategy for dealing with Russia. It argued that competition should be balanced with diplomacy and identified arenas for …
Australia started the journalist war with China. Tit-for-tat logic made it inevitable that Australian journalists in China would pay the price. Hard questions should be asked about Canberra’s thinking on the costs and consequences of …
