The case for nuclear-powered submarines

Keeping the country safe is the first duty of government and should be the constant concern of those with responsibility for our well-being. But I worry that a decade or so hence, maybe sooner, Australia …

Containing Marawi

The Marawi crisis between Philippine government security forces and militants affiliated with the Islamic State—Philippine, including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf salafist-jihadist groups, started on 23 May 2017. Since the fighting began, nearly 350 people have …

Trump’s unraveling Korea policy

With every tweet or meeting with a foreign leader that US President Donald Trump completes, American officials find themselves struggling to reassure allies that the United States remains committed to their security. Nowhere is this …

Australia, the US and the Indo-Asia-Pacific

I’ve visited Australia three times in the past seven months because what happens in Australia matters to the United States of America. And what happens here matters to the world. Our alliance is both defined by …

Cyber wrap

The UK Parliament’s e-mail system was targeted by a sustained brute-force password-guessing attack last Friday, forcing parliamentary staff to temporarily block remote email access and mandate password changes. The ‘rudimentary’ but effective attack resulted in …

On the inevitable failure of cyber security

While the Australian Government’s Cyber Security Strategy contains many good initiatives, the government’s narrative needs to evolve to account for inevitable failures. Current government rhetoric is decidedly inconsistent: cyber espionage is alive and well, yet …

Who will fill America’s shoes?

It is increasingly clear that US President Donald Trump represents a departure when it comes to America’s global outlook and behavior. As a result, the United States will no longer play the leading international role …

There’s more than one battle for Raqqa

As US supported Syrian forces and their allies battle to retake Raqqa from ISIS, it’s important to remember what the city has become under ISIS rule. Raqqa became the capital of ISIS’s so-called caliphate and …

The European Union and the Sahel

  It was remarkable that the first foreign trip taken by newly elected French President Macron was to Mali to meet French troops undertaking an anti-insurgency/terrorism operation in the north of the country (within days, …

ASPI suggests

First up, this must-read longread courtesy of The National Interest chronicles how deep structural shifts are afflicting the global system to bring about an end to the post-Cold War era. The authors reflect on the …

Banks ‘de-risking’: a threat to national security?

De-risking practices initiated by Australia’s financial institutions are inadvertently threatening our national security because they perpetuate high risk unregulated banking channels which allow terrorist groups to move illicit funds without detection. This contemporary phenomenon, also …

The current cost of the future submarine

Today I’m coming back to a subject long dear to me—the cost of the Future Submarine program. Long term followers of the subject might recall ASPI’s 2009 paper How to buy a submarine (PDF), which …