The frequency with which Australia’s director-general of security now addresses the public should give us pause. Before Director-General Mike Burgess, leaders of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) rarely spoke beyond closed briefings. Today, those …
Recent bilateral and multilateral initiatives show a clear acceleration in India–Australia critical minerals engagement. This growth has been characterised by government memorandums of understanding, tariff-reducing trade agreements, joint research hubs and cross-border industry investments. Both …
Australia should consider implementing a wall of drones to its north, to enhance its strategy of denial, consistent with its unique strategic and operational circumstances. Such a drone wall would contribute to the Australian Defence …
Debate about immigration isn’t inherently a problem. Open, informed discussion is how democracies test their values, balance economic needs and manage social cohesion. But when that debate becomes a proxy for malign motivations and is …
While new books offer topicality, occasionally it pays to revisit the classics for a reality check on the essentials of continuity and change. Published 60 years ago, TB Millar’s Australia’s Defence is one such seminal …
Leadership today is too often confused with visibility. But being seen isn’t the same as being effective. In northern Australia, where the challenges are uniquely complex and the solutions must be collaborative, performative politics cannot …
Modern defence capability no longer begins with submarines or fighters. It begins with infrastructure. Data centres, subsea fibre, sovereign cloud enclaves and globally distributed computing capacity are now essential to how militaries plan, move, fight …
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s firm and ideological leadership style marks a new phase in Japan’s foreign policy: outward-looking and prepared to defend a rules-based order that directly serves its interests. For Washington, that makes Tokyo …
Alarmism makes for powerful headlines, but it’s a poor basis for strategy. Claims that Pacific island nations are at risk of becoming ‘narco-states’ may have captured attention in the past few weeks, but they risk …
Engagement between Australia and the United States on critical minerals has matured from technical cooperation into a strategic partnership, aligning resource security with clean energy and defence priorities. Both governments recognise the urgency of diversifying …
Australia’s escalating geostrategic threats demand more than military might. They require a resilient, united and proactive civil defence framework. The Defence Strategic Review says, ‘Defence must be the force of last resort for domestic aid …
The latest personnel changes in the Chinese military show that Xi Jinping is seeking to tighten control by bringing its political apparatus under the authority of its disciplinary arm. The appointments also demonstrate his ongoing …
As warfare evolves, the perpetuation of traditional military masculinity could limit the effectiveness of combat forces. While progress has been made to include women in combat roles, narrow concepts of what it means to be …
In his first year, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has re-energised the country’s engagement with the Islamic world through highly centralised, leader-led diplomacy. However, without institutional anchoring, the engagement effort is at risk from groupthink, poor …
Australia has closed a critical gap in national security legislation to ensure the government can designate foreign state entities as sponsors of terrorism and criminalise support for them. The Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of …
While the government’s new Australian Cyber Response Plan is a significant step towards preparing for a crisis, we need to be more proactive in improving cyber resilience so that the plan need never be activated. …
In 1940, with much of Europe under fascist domination, US president Franklin Roosevelt declared that the United States must become ‘the great arsenal of democracy’. US industry mobilised, producing ships, aircraft and ammunition on an …
The Australian Parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) is reviewing legislation confirming the reality of an extraordinary, rarely used intelligence capability that has been part of national security law for 22 years: the …
Writing in The Strategist three years ago, I made the then-provocative assertion that the Philippines could be Australia’s most important defence partner in Southeast Asia. Fast forward to 2025, and the Philippines is now more …
China has perfected a system that can no longer see itself; its only remaining mirror is the world beyond its borders. For most of its modern history, the Chinese Communist Party has reformed only when …
