The ‘America First’ pendulum has been in full swing this week, as the President returned from his time abroad to stamp on the progress made by the Paris climate agreement and ask the Supreme Court …
Welcome to The Strategist Six, a feature which provides a glimpse into the thinking of prominent academics, government officials, military officers, reporters and interesting individuals from around the world. 1. How concerned is Poland about the …
Paraphrased, the US Third Offset strategy runs something like ‘bolstering US conventional deterrence through technological and operational innovation’. The strategy hinges on innovation, and sees the integration of autonomy into weapon systems and organisational constructs …
Recent media reports suggest senior US officials have told Julie Bishop that if North Korea’s nuclear weapon program can’t be reversed, South Korea and Japan will likely pursue their own indigenous nuclear arsenals. In fact, …
The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) in Singapore this weekend gives the Trump administration a major opportunity to set out, in detail, its Asia–Pacific strategy. If it fails to do that, the perception—particularly in Southeast Asia—that …
US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia offered a rare glimpse into his emerging foreign-policy agenda. It is now all but certain that the Trump administration will abstain from lecturing foreign leaders about their …
The Beat All that glitters… … is not gold, and not all that is gold is legally mined. African Matters profiles the latest developments in Ghana’s fight to curb galamsey, the practice of illegal artisanal …
In April, the government released their first annual update on implementation of the 2016 Cyber Security Strategy. We provided our assessment of that report on The Strategist shortly afterwards, and yesterday we released our own …
John McCain’s speech in Sydney this week offered an emotionally-appealing restatement of the orthodox, establishment view of Australia’s alliance with America. In doing so the veteran Republican senator showed quite plainly why that view is …
As long-term readers will know, we keep a watching brief on American aircraft development and production programs that are relevant to Australia. The two most significant ones are the RAAF’s current and future first line …
China’s new cybersecurity law enters into force this week, less than a month after the implementation of additional measures for security reviews of critical network products and services. (See here for some background on the …
In 2002 Ray Griggs, then captain of the frigate HMAS Arunta, took his ship to the Persian Gulf to help enforce UN sanctions against Iraq. The Anzac-class frigate was equipped with eight air defence missiles …
Emmanuel Macron’s election to the French presidency provides the European Union with an opportunity to move past the internal conflicts that have hastened its disintegration. Rather than standing exclusively with the old elites or the …
What, exactly, is China trying to do with the vast Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, formally known as One Belt, One Road) by building connectivity across the whole Eurasian continent? Since President Xi Jinping launched …
In a tragic twist of timing, the report on Australia’s worst terrorist incident in recent years was handed down only hours after the suicide bombing in Manchester Arena, the first mass-casualty jihadist terrorist attack in …
Sea State The Pentagon is looking at equipping the US Coast Guard’s planned three new medium icebreakers with heavy weapons. Speaking to a House subcommittee on Homeland Security, Admiral Paul Zukunft said it was necessary …
Since 2015 Australia—partnering with Switzerland—has built support among 36 countries to address concerns about military and police forces’ interest in the use of highly toxic chemicals, such as anaesthetic and sedative agents, as weapons for …
A hydrogen bomb fits North Korean nuclear strategy so perfectly that it’s likely to be a top priority program. Most discussion of North Korea’s nuclear effort focuses on matters of “can and when”. Can they …
Australia has been part of America’s long war against terrorism since the war began in 2001. In the first stage (2001–02), al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was badly mauled in a quick special forces and airpower campaign. …
Earlier this month, the campaign of French presidential election candidate Emanuel Macron fell victim to targeted cyber intrusion efforts by infamous Russian hacking collective that goes by a number of names including Pawn Storm, Strontium, …