Now is the time for Japan to join AUKUS

In a report on the UK government’s Indo-Pacific policy, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee calls for the United Kingdom to propose to Australia and the United States that Japan, along with South Korea, …

Starships from the north

On 17 November, SpaceX made a second attempt to launch its fully reusable launch vehicle, Starship Superheavy, from the company’s Boca Chica launch site in Texas. The first launch (video here, with launch at 44:48), …

Europe’s chance to finish off illiberal democracy

The results of the recent elections in Poland and Slovakia underscore the two countries’ diverging political trajectories. In Poland, the democratic opposition won enough parliamentary seats to oust the increasingly authoritarian Law and Justice (PiS) …

There’s only one way forward in Gaza

Is there any possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, or must we simply get used to periodic wars that deny both sides the tranquillity and stability they seek? It’s easy to be pessimistic. …

The long tail of China’s zero-Covid policy

For three years, China’s zero-Covid policy consistently received high-profile media coverage from the Chinese and the international press. During the first phase of the pandemic, China’s mass mobilisation of resources and strict regionwide lockdowns were …

Summing up the Biden–Xi summit

Summits are by definition occasions of high politics and drama, so it comes as little surprise that the 15 November meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping generated immense global interest. …

The threat spectrum

Planet A Australia has created a new mobility pathway for Tuvaluans facing the existential threat of climate change through the Falepili Union treaty announced on the sidelines of last week’s Pacific Islands Forum meeting in …

Thirty years of APEC summits

The APEC summit in San Francisco this week offers poignant echoes and painful contrasts with the first summit in Seattle 30 years ago. Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation is always ‘four adjectives in search of a noun’, …

AI, arms control and the new cold war

So far, the 2020s have been marked by tectonic shifts in both technology and international security. Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, which brought the post–Cold War era to a sudden and violent end, …