Israel’s normalisation agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed on 15 September, signify a potentially tectonic shift in the Middle East and represent perhaps the greatest advance towards peace there in 25 years. …
Military tension in the Taiwan Strait reached a worrying level on the weekend of 19–20 September. For several days prior, People’s Liberation Army Air Force fighters and bombers had been conducting flights through the strait …
Sea state Supporting documents for the Pentagon’s Future navy force study suggest it’s considering expanding the US Navy to as many as 534 vessels, up from the service’s current target of 355 manned ships by …
New Caledonia will hold its second referendum on 4 October as part of the final self-determination process agreed to in the 1998 Noumea Accord. That agreement provides for up to three polls, two years apart, …
Shinzo Abe was born into Japan’s political royalty. His maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, barely escaped trial as a Class-A war criminal yet he served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960. His paternal grandfather, Kan …
Researchers at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre are documenting and analysing the Chinese government’s repressive policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest corner of China. Over the past two years, the team …
In a recent Strategist article on China’s island-building strategy in the Pacific, Steve Raaymakers recycles a number of misapprehensions about a planned Chinese fisheries project on Hao Atoll in French Polynesia. The article suggests that …
Autonomous Kurdistan is a federal administrative unit of Iraq in the northern part of the country and is controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government. It hosts foreign investors from many countries and entities, including the …
Submarines are a top-of-the-budget answer to a top-of-the-pile nightmare. The argument for subs lies within the fundamental call on any nation: defend the realm and protect the currency (proving the oldest-profession status of strategists and …
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 …