Almost a year ago, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) set homework for the Department of Defence, including reprioritising the country’s rolling plan for military capability spending, the Integrated Investment Program (IIP). That update is now …
Nuclear deterrence, with its inherent risk of annihilation, cannot remain the bedrock of international security. Nuclear states, particularly great powers, can and should work on new conventional strategic options that can effectively deter aggression without …
With Indonesian President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo fast approaching the end of his 10-year term and the February election result now official, it’s time to consider how incoming president Prabowo Subianto will shape the country’s strategic …
Australia’s military weakness in an increasingly threatening regional environment requires that serious consideration be given to setting up a defence strategy and procurement body that operates with the same independence as the central bank. The …
Solomon Islanders are set to vote on 17 April in an election that has significance within and beyond the country’s borders. It is the first chance for them to vote on policy directions that the …
As Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail’, but in a time of great uncertainty in a world beset by economic, geopolitical and climate-related challenges, how can the Australian Public …
Once the sick man of Europe, Germany seems to be under the weather once again. That might be putting it mildly: much as it did in the late 1990s, Germany is staring down the barrel …
The strategic potential of Submarine Rotational Force-West, the AUKUS initiative that commits the United States and United Kingdom to forward-deploy a small flotilla of nuclear-powered attack submarines to HMAS Stirling, near Fremantle, isn’t adequately appreciated. …
The integration of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems is essential to ensuring that Australia is capable of defending its interests now and into the future, but we as a country must be careful not to …
Britain is becoming a model of what a smaller partner in the Pacific should be. Since announcing its Pacific Uplift policy five years ago, Britain has taken small but stable steps in building its presence …
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) is very clear: Australia must change the way it plans for and acquires defence capabilities. The DSR recognises that doing so will require a net assessment to examine the …
Might China try to attack Taiwan by 2027? The outgoing chief of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Philip Davidson, thought so in 2021, and he recently reaffirmed his assessment. But whether the United States and China …
In discussing Vietnamese politics, the commentariat falls back on the word ‘opaque’. This usually means that it does not know what is happening. The term is resurfacing in the wake of the resignation on 19 …
Held on 5-11 March, China’s National People’s Congress, the most important event in the country’s annual political calendar, was remarkable mainly for how unremarkable it was this year. Premier Li Qiang’s report on the work …
Australia has a lot to learn from Taiwan but very few avenues for learning. A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan on 3 April. Amid severe damage and landslides, few were killed in the east-coast …
The development of an Australia-UK joint climate action plan as part of AUKMIN’s defence and security pillar foregrounds the important role of the two countries’ defence ministers and agencies in responding to climate change. Where …
It’s been more than a decade since the then Gillard government released Australia’s first national security strategy, flagging an expectation that an updated strategy should be created every five years to set out key objectives …
The vulnerability of Australia’s trade routes to military coercion was highlighted by both last year’s Defence Strategic Update and by government commentary on the rationale for AUKUS. In his critique of ASPI’s new report, The …
Waiting for the US Congress to pass an aid package for Ukraine feels like waiting for Godot. On a recent visit to Washington, I met with officials from President Joe Biden’s administration, Republican senators, House …
Our ability to plan for crises, to reduce the uncertainties they present and to quickly diagnose the effectiveness of our actions in novel scenarios—all of this opens up a conversation about the possibilities and challenges …