Hugh White’s latest book, How to defend Australia, has attracted much attention. As the book’s back cover rightly claims, White is ‘Australia’s most provocative, revelatory and realistic commentator on defence’. But, as he himself might …
The three key actors in the Korean peninsula crisis are demonstrating why a solution should be anchored in an international coalition and international institutions. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un shows signs that he is ready to trade nuclear …
The global debate has shifted beyond why we shouldn’t trust Chinese telecommunications company Huawei to why we can’t trust any equipment vendor. How can we trust US companies after the Edward Snowden disclosures? Doesn’t the …
In September 2018, Australian clothing chain Cotton On sent representatives to Xinjiang in western China to assess a large textile facility in the Korla industrial zone run by the China-based Litai Textile Group. As uncovered …
Sea state As Exercise Talisman Sabre continues at Queensland’s Shoalwater Bay and in waters off the north of the state, a Chinese electronic surveillance ship has been filmed travelling down the Queensland coast to monitor …
‘We live in an era of increasing competition where the rules-based international order is coming under increasing pressure.’ — Lieutenant General Rick Burr, Chief of the Australian Army This key observation in the army chief’s …
Facebook’s plans to launch a global cryptocurrency have been met with a swift and justifiably wary reaction from regulators around the world. The US Congress’s House Financial Services Committee wrote an open letter to Facebook …
Since the May 2018 visit to Australia by French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian commentators have continued to assert that French colonial control in the Pacific is crucial to constraining China’s rising influence in the region. …
The comfortable Canberra consensus on how to handle China has boiled over. A set of simmering debates has become extremely hot. Australia was long able to keep its economic relationship with China in the prosperity …
Concerns were widely expressed this week about a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship loitering off eastern Australia to spy on our biggest defence exercise. This is one of many cases where Prime Minister Scott Morrison will have …
The world The White House has announced a US$2.2 billion arms deal with Taiwan. Congress has 30 days to nix the agreement, though that’s an unlikely outcome. Vox has the latest details on the deal, …
Last month, Stephen Kuper highlighted his concerns about the security of the global supply chain for rare-earth elements (REEs), particularly as it relates to sustaining the US defence force. Right now, it’s a bleak outlook. …
It was some years ago that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly said: ‘Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.’ His words must have come to haunt him on 23 June when Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition Republican People’s …
ASPI’s ‘War in 2025’ conference was held last month and attracted some leading thinkers in defence, strategy and policy. In this episode, you’ll hear from some of them, including senior fellow at New America, Peter …
This year is proving to be something of a watershed in technology. Government and professional bodies are considering or acting on controls around technologies such as artificial intelligence and encryption. The United States, like Australia …
The beat Australian intelligence and law enforcement agencies under scrutiny Revelations about the Australian Federal Police’s activity—such as the accessing of a journalist’s metadata nearly 60 times—have called into question the extent of intelligence and …
As the Geneva Conventions turn 70, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is changing its guide to how new weapons are reviewed. Here’s why we need to pay attention. After witnessing the Battle …
When I left government in 2018 one of my key concerns was that I didn’t think we fully understood the implications of technology for national security. Technology is going to be a core aspect of …
Last week, the US State Department designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Pakistani government officially declared the BLA a proscribed entity in 2006 following a number of terrorist …
In 2018, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong predicted that in a little over a decade the ASEAN economy will become the world’s fourth largest, behind only the US, China and that of the European …