Observers of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia can’t have missed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s declaration a year ago that the two countries enjoyed a level of ‘trust that underpins only the truest of …
Speaking in Kabul on 14 February on the 32nd anniversary of the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, made an important distinction. The civil war that devastated Afghanistan after the withdrawal …
Each night for more than a week, unregistered flights between Yangon and Kunming have been transporting unknown goods and personnel from China to Myanmar. The military regime that’s now in charge of Myanmar is trying …
The Australian government has released its mid-year budget update in the form of the portfolio additional estimates statements. If you’re looking for screaming headline material in the defence portfolio’s PAES you may be disappointed. But …
As the global rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 gathers pace, there are already reports of a vibrant black market for the various vaccine candidates. A black market usually springs up fairly quickly when there’s a …
Decades after the Cold War, Russia remains the perfect enemy, with an unmatched ability to agitate Europe’s political class. But the intensity of European debates and emotions regarding Russia masks a growing unity that should …
‘Australia’s strategic environment has deteriorated more rapidly than anticipated … Our region is in the midst of the most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War … The Indo-Pacific is at the centre of …
When Vietnam’s communist party held its national congress on 1 February, many thought it would be a turning point similar to that of the Doi Moi reforms of the 1980s. ASPI’s Huong Le Thu and …
Is Xi Jinping more Hitlerian or Stalinist in his view of Chinese socialism? The answer to that question is important because it bears on the policy choices China’s adversaries will need to make. George Kennan, …
A wind of political change seems to be suddenly blowing across the troubled Middle East. Egyptian authorities have unexpectedly freed an Al Jazeera journalist from jail and Saudi Arabia has conditionally released a human rights …
With multiple initiatives set to launch, 2021 was supposed to be the year Australia pivoted to Southeast Asia. Recent events in Myanmar will make this more challenging, but the underlying reasons for investing in Southeast …
If sometimes it seems that governments rush to appoint inquiries or royal commissions, then I want to assure you: this is no modern-day phenomenon. The bombing of Darwin, on this day 79 years ago, prompted …
Now that the government has made the decision to purchase 29 of Boeing’s AH-64E Apache helicopters by 2025 to replace the Australian Army’s 22 Airbus Tigers, where does it leave us? Surprisingly, it’s with a …
Like a Jim’s Mowing franchise owner watching a neighbour lay synthetic grass, many Australian business leaders with multiple lines of dependency on Chinese money have looked on with disdain and disappointment as the bilateral relationship …
In the first foreign-policy speech of his presidency, Joe Biden had a simple message for the world: ‘America is back’. But restoring the credibility of US diplomacy and implementing an effective foreign policy will be …
The Chinese Communist Party’s first leader, Mao Zedong, once said that ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’. Mao’s words echo a fundamental truth of China’s system of government—that the ruling party …
A surprising defence-technology partnership is emerging between Japan and the UK. The cooperation is mostly preliminary but not at all basic: the two countries are working together on some of the most challenging systems used …
Sea state The first of Canada’s 15 new frigates is expected to be in the water in just over a decade, two to three years later than estimated. The ultra-modern combat vessels are modelled on …
There has been nothing like it before in Poland. On 10 February, newspapers and magazines suspended publication, news websites went dark, and dozens of radio and television stations ceased broadcasting. Thirty years after the fall …
The dominant response to the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February has been, ‘Here we go again.’ Media commentary has highlighted the strong similarities between recent events and the 1988 coup, explained by the …