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 …
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 …
As the recipient of more than US$200 billion worth of Chinese infrastructure and real estate investment, Malaysia is fast becoming the principal ASEAN partner in China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. Malaysia’s need to …
Say I knock on your door and tell you that I’m going to burn your house down. And let’s say you believe I have the capability to do so, making my threat credible. Your first …
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 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 …
Australia’s popular standing in Washington DC is at a high-water mark following the infamous Trump–Turnbull phone call. There’s immense goodwill towards Australia, but that hasn’t yet translated to a formal re-evaluation of the US–Australia alliance …
Friday marks 12 months since Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy—a welcome development after cyber issues spent seven years wandering in the Canberra wilderness searching for a policy. The Strategy has prompted …
Sea State Some worthy new analysis on the future of the US Navy surfaced last week. The crux of the analysis in Foreign Policy is that the three Congress-commissioned proposals for naval force structure—mentioned recently …
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. …
How does an independent Australia make its way in Asia? And can Australia have an Asian future while holding tight to the alliance with its great and powerful friend? The ‘great and powerful’ reference speaks …
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 …
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 …
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 Beat Taser’s body cameras—razorblades in a free lunch? Axon (formerly Taser)—is offering free ‘Axon Body 2’ cameras to every sworn law enforcement officer in the US. It’s a big bet on the future of …
Australia has historically taken a stop-start approach to naval shipbuilding, investing in a mixture of domestic- and foreign-sourced warships at uneven increments. The current Australian government is planning to invest tens of billions of dollars …
It’s often been claimed that terrorism doesn’t present an existential threat to the survival of the nation-state. Former vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, took this view, which he claimed helped to keep …
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 …
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 …
Across the Middle East there has been a marked increase in terrorist attacks in the wake of the Arab Spring, the rise of the Islamic State (IS), and the revival of al-Qaeda and its offshoots. …