The Covid-19 crisis has exposed serious international fault lines and inflamed tensions between China and the United States. It has also revealed the vulnerability of Australia and other middle powers to the fragility of global …
The European Union has no shortage of experience in responding to crises. But, as the number of coronavirus cases in Europe and the UK surpasses 1.3 million and deaths exceed 155,000, we’re seeing the bloc …
If there’s a silver lining in the dark cloud of Covid-19, it’s that previous business-as-usual practices cannot continue after the crisis is over. Not only must changes in personal and social behaviour remain, but changes …
Cascading wake-up moments have shaken Australia’s view of China over the past five years. The realisations—a succession of gee-whizz, crikey and oops events—have pushed Canberra to new places. The impact doesn’t amount to shock; this …
Can Australia stop the Chinese government’s economic coercion against our government and businesses? Yes. All it would take is for Australian political leaders and parliaments to align our national policies, laws and directions with those …
In this episode, Kelsey Munro, ASPI senior analyst, speaks to Charles Edel, senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, about the current tensions between Australia and China and the …
Tuesday 12 May was to have been budget night, until Covid-19 intervened and the government moved the 2020–21 budget release to 6 October. This gives Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team time to focus …
There’s a constant in Australian defence: not enough people. In peacetime, the defence organisation’s difficulties with recruitment are an ongoing saga, occasionally surfacing in headlines like ‘Sailor shortage strands Australian warship HMAS Perth in dry …
On 9 May, a senior inspector of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary was brutally murdered in suburban Port Moresby. His alleged assailants were a small group of drunken off-duty members of the PNG Defence …
Despite the Covid-19 crisis, geopolitical competition is not going into hibernation. With relations between the US and China taking a further adversarial turn, it is imperative that Australia find ways to continue strengthening and diversifying …
Covid-19 might be dominating the headlines these days, but other important issues still play out in the smaller font sizes. In last month’s executive summary of the 2020 edition of the US State Department’s annual …
The beat Arrests made during Melbourne coronavirus protest Ten protesters were arrested and a police officer was injured during an anti-lockdown demonstration in Melbourne on the weekend. More than 100 people gathered outside the Victorian …
The maritime strategic balance in the Indo-Pacific is changing rapidly. The future of undersea nuclear deterrent forces has strategic, operational and force structure aspects for all major powers in the region. Strategic competition in an …
A major disruptive crisis can force countries to adapt in ways that are deeply uncomfortable to the authors of the old order. That is what is happening with the Covid-19 pandemic. The world is being …
The media’s obsession with the novel coronavirus pandemic has pushed all other crises, actual and potential, out of the headlines. This does not mean they have vanished; it’s only a matter of time before one …
On 14 April, as China’s Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey group sailed into the South China Sea again, Taiwan scrambled ships to monitor the passage of the Chinese navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group as it …
On the whole, the Australian intelligence agencies emerged from the early 2000s with a better reputation than those of the United States or United Kingdom. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 demonstrated the catastrophic …
This article is part of ASPI’s 2020 series on women, peace and security. ‘[W]e are in a war against this virus and all Australians are enlisted to do the right thing.’ — Prime Minister Scott …
Increasing global interconnection—growing cross-border flows of people, goods, energy, emails, television and radio signals, data, drugs, terrorists, weapons, carbon dioxide, food, dollars and, of course, viruses (both biological and software)—has been a defining feature of …
Most Australians have no idea how quickly they’ll be running on empty if our fuel supplies from overseas are cut in a crisis. For decades, the nation has relied on risky, just-in-time deliveries of the …