The Quad is more notable for the questions it provokes than the answers it offers. The informal dialogue between the US, Japan, Australia and India is a discussion groping towards a grouping. ASPI’s paper Quad …
The world Three of Australia’s major political parties and the parliament have been hacked by a ‘sophisticated state actor’. For the details see the New York Times. Writing in The Strategist, Peter Jennings outlines why …
The Indian government is ploughing ahead with its plans to develop the country’s northeast, including the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as its own territory. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid …
President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency at the southern border of the United States—where there is no emergency at all—in order to access funding to build the wall that he promised his supporters …
In the lead-up to each federal election, ASPI releases its Agenda for change: Strategic choices for the next government to help shape election platforms and public debate. This year the report contains 30 short essays …
In this podcast, Tom Uren and Elise Thomas discuss the revelations that a ‘sophisticated state actor’ was behind cyberattacks on Australia’s parliament and major political parties and ask where we draw the line between espionage and …
Since the 1980s, Australian defence ministers have made regular parliamentary statements about the roles and functions of the US–Australia joint defence facilities (at Pine Gap, North West Cape and, until 1999, Nurrungar). These are important …
The beat Police protection pulled after bombings in Kashmir After last week’s bombing in Kashmir, India has removed the police protection it provided to a number of Kashmiri political figures. In the past, India has …
It was at the 2007 Munich Security Conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin first signalled a cooling of Russian–Western relations. Soon thereafter, Russia invaded Georgia; and in the years since, it has annexed Crimea, launched …
It doesn’t get much bigger than attacking the home of democracy—parliament house—and a country’s major political parties only months out from a federal election. In his statement on these attacks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said …
Last week, veteran Times reporter Anthony Loyd travelled to a Syrian refugee camp to interview Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old woman from Bethnal Green in London’s East End, who at the age of 15 left home …
Understanding how societal conflict and instability affect men and women is essential to the development and implementation of lasting peaceful solutions. While men do most of the fighting, it is women who maintain social cohesion, …
Scott Morrison’s shock announcement in parliament that the three major political parties have had their computer systems hacked by a ‘sophisticated state actor’ will have impacts long after the federal election. There’s a lot that …
The EU’s recently proposed regulation to prevent the online dissemination of terrorist content has sparked significant concern among experts and civil society groups. One of the most controversial elements of the proposal is the requirement …
The recent debate here on The Strategist between Paul Dibb and Hugh White over how Australia ought to respond to an unprovoked Chinese attack on the island of Taiwan touches upon an issue of deep …
Sea state UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has been criticised by China and cabinet colleagues for announcing that the Royal Navy’s flagship, aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, would sail through the South China Sea. This …
As Chinese and American trade negotiators meet in Washington to try to forge an accord on trade, observers are largely focused on the countries’ economic disagreements, such as over China’s subsidies to its state-owned enterprises. …
At first blush, the central narrative of the Defence Department’s 2018–19 budget, as presented in the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements (PAES), appears to be about the falling Australian dollar. Defence’s estimated appropriation for 2018–19 has …
By the end of last week parliamentarians and sections of the media (see here and here) had all offered opinions on whether independent MP Kerryn Phelps’ medical evacuation bill would restart the people-smuggling trade to …
Last week’s terrorist attack about 20 kilometres from Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, was the deadliest attack since 1989, when a militant insurgency against Indian rule began. Almost 50 paramilitary troops travelling …