American military historian Roger Spiller, delivering the keynote speech at the Society for Military History, argued that what Carl von Clausewitz and Hans Delbruck ‘had in mind’ when writing history ‘was not the application of …
In the spring of 1929 a group of British army officers made a study tour of the 1918 Somme battlefields from Villers-Bretonneux, astride the main road westward to Amiens, and then out to the east to the …
Singapore, this year’s ASEAN chair, faces some tough tasks. It must lift confidence in the organisation and inject the inspiration it needs to overcome a ‘midlife crisis’ while encouraging favourable conditions for continued economic growth. …
A flurry of attacks on the Turnbull government’s handling of the Australia–China relationship has captured the media’s attention. First a columnist for the Financial Review on a Fortescue-funded trip to China’s Bo’ao Forum punched out …
Sea state Albayrak Savunma, a Turkish drone manufacturer, says it has developed a ‘mobile naval mine’ capable of destroying any ship. The Wattozz sea mine features two cameras mounted in the eye sockets of its …
The Islamic State’s (IS) caliphate project had mostly collapsed by the end of 2017. Even so, terrorism and counterterrorism (CT) in the Middle East were still driven by the fight against IS, a resurgent al-Qaeda and …
International defence companies have been warned that seeking a share of the $200 billion to be spent upgrading the Australian Defence Force will require a much greater commitment than simply obtaining an Australian business number. Defence …
Minister Christopher Pyne’s launch today of the Defence Industrial Capability Plan continues the production of industry policy information and initiatives under the Turnbull government. Given the material already released, it is a pretty dense field—including …
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been diligently promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—usually just called the nuclear ban treaty—since it was opened for signature on 20 September 2017. ICAN’s …
Because populism is not an ideology in itself, it can easily appeal to mainstream political parties seeking to shore up flagging electoral support. There are always politicians willing to mimic populist slogans and methods to …
Perhaps, the real ‘arms race’ in artificial intelligence (AI) is not military competition but the battle for talent. Since the vast majority of the world’s top AI experts remain in the US, China is starting …
The fifth icy age has descended on China–Australia relations—cooling business, frosting diplomacy and chilling strategic perspectives. China has put Australia into diplomatic ‘deep freeze’. China speaks of ‘a growing lack of mutual trust’, accusing Australia …
In a recent article in The Australian, Peter Jennings characterised the Putin regime, along with those of several other authoritarian leaders, as ‘Leninist’. This seems to me both historically inaccurate and unhelpful in understanding the …
‘A perfectly executed strike…Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished.’ So tweeted US President Donald Trump just hours after more than a hundred American, French, and British cruise missiles hit three sites in …
The world The justifications put forward by allied nations to strike the Assad regime in Syria last week rest on the fact that using chemical weapons is unequivocally unacceptable. Three powerful pieces—one each from Andrew …
While seconded to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute last year, one of the most engaging topics for discussion around Canberra was who would become the new chief and vice chief of the ADF, and of …
In an age defined by US President Donald Trump’s rage, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revisionism and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unbridled ambition, the international order is becoming increasingly disorderly, dysfunctional and even dangerous. How did …
In 1980 US President Jimmy Carter established the Carter Doctrine, asserting the right of the United States to protect strategic interests in the Middle East. The doctrine reflected the reality that oil sustained the US …
In 2017, a US Department of Defense study of the future operating environment described artificial intelligence (AI) as the most disruptive technology of our time. In this environment, says the report: big data techniques interrogate …
One of the key elements of the government’s strategy for national defence is an ambitious recapitalisation of the Australian Defence Force. The 2016 Defence White Paper and its supporting Defence Integrated Investment Program (IIP) announced …