Many parts of Asia seem to be emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic relatively well. But overcoming the public health crisis is only one challenge the region faces. Where climate change is concerned, Asia may be …
The world has changed rapidly over the past 18 months and the way Australia’s defence organisation trains its people needs to change with it, or skills and readiness will surely decline. A combination of the …
In August 2013, I organised a seminar at the Australian National University titled, ‘What is the chance of a coup for Myanmar?’ At the time, some judged the discussion premature. Aung San Suu Kyi had …
Launch of international guidelines for police investigating violence against women and girls A handbook on gender-responsive police services for women and girls subject to violence has been released by UN Women, the UN Office on Drugs …
The passing of former US Secretary of State George Shultz on 7 February, at the grand age of 100, was a sad moment for those of us who shared his passion for a world free …
Joe Biden has been president of the United States for just a few weeks, but the central elements of his approach to the world are already clear: rebuilding at home, working with allies, embracing diplomacy, …
China and India are using the inoculation drive against Covid-19 as part of their diplomatic efforts to shore up global and regional ties—and they aren’t the only ones. But now the two countries are engaged …
The Joe Biden administration faces numerous domestic and foreign policy challenges. On the external front, one of them is how to deal with Iran. Biden has indicated the reduction of tension between the two sides, …
Cryptocurrencies are having a moment. Not only is the price of one bitcoin hovering around the all-time high of nearly US$42,000 it hit in early January, but the Reserve Bank of Australia has announced that …
Directly or indirectly, the military has always called the shots in Myanmar. And now that it has removed the decade-old facade of gradual democratisation by detaining civilian leaders and seizing power, Western calls to punish …
An impeached president departs Washington in disgrace. The peace deal in America’s longest war crumbles and defeat looms. US politics is polarised. A nation, both angry and agitated, grapples with racial and social divisions. The …
In the first episode of ASPI’s Policy, Guns and Money podcast for 2021, Jacob Wallis and Ariel Bogle of ASPI’s International Policy Centre provide a primer on QAnon. They discuss the conspiracy theory’s origins, its …
In recent years, China has taken a dim view of Australian naval and air activities in the South China Sea. Australia is considered an intruder, an external power that has no right to deploy into …
The 1,300-page unclassified version of the review of the legal framework of Australia’s national intelligence community (NIC), delivered to the government in December 2019 and released a year later, offered 203 recommendations for reform. Thirteen …
How Joe Biden handles China will be one of the defining issues of his presidency. He inherits a Sino-American relationship that is at its lowest point in 50 years. Some people blame this on his …
Among the myriad technological developments in airpower—including advanced propulsion, better stealth, directed-energy weapons and hypersonics—perhaps the most important will turn out to be artificial intelligence. AI has the potential to transform air combat operations and …
Australia should be paying close attention to the imminent appearance of the Xian H-20 stealth bomber built by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. The aircraft will greatly improve China’s ability to hit distant targets, …
Sino-American rivalry bodes ill for Singapore’s politics and security but the storm has a few silver linings. A ‘tech rush’ of sorts is manifesting with Chinese technology giants like Alibaba, Tencent and Bytedance (the owner …
Until recently, the last time Myanmar’s military supervised a general election whose outcome it didn’t like was back in 1990. On that occasion, a military junta refused to recognise the results, arrested the democratically elected …
Former US president Donald Trump’s unfinished and unsuccessful trade wars with both China and some of America’s allies will be hard for his successor Joe Biden to untangle. Biden won’t want to lower unilaterally the …