The two faces of French populism

Will French voters have to choose between two extremes at their presidential election? In advance of the first round of voting this weekend, the fear that France will surrender to populism is significant, with far-right …

The second year of Europe

More than four decades ago, US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger declared 1973 to be ‘The Year of Europe.’ His aim was to highlight the need to modernise the Atlantic relationship and, more specifically, the …

Cyber wrap

Today the Prime Minister will release the first annual review of Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy, which the PM foreshadowed in an op-ed for The Australian. The PM says that his government is ‘pleased with progress’, …

President Erdogan: Turkey’s uncrowned sultan

President Erdogan has achieved his long-cherished ambition to be acknowledged as the uncrowned sultan of Turkey. However, his goal has been attained at great cost to the country. Turkey is divided down the middle regarding …

Too late to compensate free trade’s losers

It appears that a new consensus has taken hold these days among the world’s business and policy elites about how to address the anti-globalization backlash that populists such as Donald Trump have so ably exploited. …

It’s Easter! We’ll be back on Tuesday

Team Strategist will be enjoying a four day break over the Easter long weekend and will be back on Tuesday with our usual considered debate and analysis. Until then, why not check out Rod Lyon’s thoughts …

Trump, mill-ponds and dropped wrenches

Despite last week’s cruise missile attack in Syria, the outlook for the strategic policy of the Trump administration is still deeply uncertain. After all, one missile strike doesn’t make a strategic policy. And US declaratory …

What I tell my non-American friends

I frequently travel overseas, and invariably my foreign friends ask, with varying degrees of bewilderment: What in the world is going on in your country? Here is what I say. First, do not misinterpret the …

The Korean peninsula: a cast of very jaded players

South Korea, Japan and the United States expressed outrage at North Korea’s simultaneous launch of four extended-range SCUD ballistic missiles in early March 2017. The missiles—the most primitive in the DPRK arsenal—splashed down about 1,000 …

Cyber wrap

In big news this week for our Kiwi neighbours, New Zealand opened its first national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). CERT NZ, a deliverable of New Zealand’s 2015 Cyber Security Strategy, has been established within …