The decision of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to end shortwave broadcasts to the South Pacific is a serious blunder, based on a shrinking, insular view of ABC responsibilities. The ABC should be embarrassed that 31 …
Ahoy, readers. First up this week, a look at the curious incident of the lost carrier battle group in the Asia–Pacific. Let’s be clear: this whole episode is whack. President Trump’s claim that the US …
After one of the most tumultuous campaigns in Indonesian history, the incumbent governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) was soundly defeated by former Education Minister and academic, Anies Baswedan, in the second round of …
The French presidential election race has rarely been so tight and so interesting. The four candidates (three men and one woman) who have a real chance of getting through the first round on 23 April …
Imagine that you’re on a quest. You’ve journeyed, wearily, for decades. The bones of your dead horses describe a winding trail in the wilderness behind you. You come at last to a cross-roads, from which …
Japan’s population is set to decline 31%, to 88 million people, by 2065—and that’s good news. Not because a smaller population is necessarily good—although that case can be made—but because the projected drop is an …
The Beat Damning report for Duterte’s drug war Despite a heft of sometimes-baffling domestic support, the Philippine ‘war on drugs’ has been internationally controversial and brutal (look to NYT’s disturbingly visceral photo-feature.) This week, a …
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 …