The 10-week-long standoff between Chinese and Indian forces in the Doklam region of the Himalayas was peacefully resolved on 28 August. This is a victory for diplomacy on both sides. The temptation to score points …
The beat Ending a dream President Trump has declared that he’ll end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was established under an executive order signed by President Obama in 2012. It allows …
Diplomatic missions routinely use social media, especially Facebook, as a platform for public diplomacy and consular support. Their main target audiences are local people. Among the 22 Facebook pages managed by Australian diplomatic missions (embassies, …
The United States has never had a president like Donald Trump. With a narcissistic personality and a short attention span, and lacking experience in world affairs, he tends to project slogans rather than strategy in …
After Brexit, the EU member states made a commitment to unity in their Rome Declaration of March 2017. They also indicated the possibility of creating a ‘two-speed’ or ‘multi-speed’ Europe, with members cooperating in areas …
This year has seen many 75th anniversaries of battles and campaigns from the darkest hours of 1942, with the Battle of the Coral Sea (4 to 8 May) prominent. But in all these commemorative activities …
Articles discussing pre-emptive strikes on North Korea are now everywhere. Based on a small number of in-depth analytical studies, they detail military challenges, human costs and likely outcomes. While those articles prepare us for the …
Sea state The Pentagon will soon begin executing scheduled freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea. It’s a shift in policy from that of the previous administration, under which FONOPs were conducted on an ad …
Last month, Kate Grayson provided us with a good descriptive analysis of the problems faced by public sector agencies that rely on the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) to process applications for Top Secret …
In 2016, the Indonesian government released a white paper outlining the parameters for a future ‘global maritime fulcrum’ (GMF) strategy. The document reflects the significance of the littoral environment to the country’s national psyche and …
North Korea’s sixth nuclear test is easily its most impressive. The fifth—in September last year—involved the detonation of a device similar in yield to the bomb the Americans dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The latest …
North Korea’s sixth—and most powerful—nuclear test is part of a pattern of escalating belligerence. As a result, the UN Security Council will issue yet another resolution condemning Kim Jong-un’s blatant violations of previous council resolutions. …
Populism and WPS The recent populist surge, as seen in Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump and the electoral gains of the far right in much of Europe, exhibits a rising global conservatism. The reversion …
The new normal of international affairs has lots of abnormalities. Not least is the way the norms of the system of states are being tested and stretched and pushed and punished. Along with all the …
The widely accepted view that Australia is broadly in Asia without being part of Asia is being challenged as an assertive China, threats from North Korea, foreign fighters returning to the region and insurgency in …
There’s been a lot going on in Australia’s near region this week, the closest of which is the continuing conflict in the Philippine city of Marawi. RAAF Orion surveillance aircraft are already providing intelligence support …
It’s slowly becoming clear that as horrific as the Barcelona attack was, it could have been much worse. The cell was planning to use a homemade explosive device to kill hundreds at landmarks across the …
In August, North Korea went a couple of weeks without launching any missiles or testing nuclear weapons. That short interval, which has since ended, was enough to inspire US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to …
The force structure proposed in the 2016 Defence White Paper lacks a long-range deterrence capability—at least until we get a credible fleet of submarines sometime in the distant 2040s. Short of nuclear threats, which are …
In his speech commemorating ASEAN’s 50th birthday, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo reminded ASEAN to maintain its unity and centrality lest it be drawn deeper into a great-power rivalry that would undermine the security of individual …