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. …
President Trump’s decision to fire dozens of missiles at a Syrian airbase in retaliation for the Syrian government’s alleged use of sarin gas to attack a town in Idlib province has demonstrated several dimensions of …
A debate over the future of US naval fighter jets has been on a slow burn for months, but it’s starting to heat up. There are reports that Boeing is surreptitiously marketing the F/A-18XT or …
The US strike on Syria signals the first decisive action by a White House administration coming to terms with its foreign policy responsibilities in an ever more precarious international order. In a move that was …
Sea State The USN needs an extra $2.1 billion this year to address immediate readiness shortfalls, says Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson. Testifying last week before the House Armed Services Committee on the …
The much anticipated first meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping ended in smiles all around at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s luxury private club in Florida. That’s good news for Australia. When China and the United …
A senior US military general in South Korea recently advised Foreign Minister Julie Bishop that Australia would ‘soon be within range’ of a North Korean nuclear strike. That raises several crucial defence policy questions. First, …
Most of the attention in the South China Sea has focused on China’s military activities. But the impending natural disaster there is also cause for concern. As a recent report makes clear there’s been significant coral …
The Middle East now has the dubious honour of spawning two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organisations: al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS). While IS experienced significant losses in 2016, it remains a potent …
In 2003, Solomon Islands stared into a national abyss—confronting ethnic conflict and state failure. The Melanesian nation appealed for help, prompting the largest, longest and most ambitious security effort ever mounted by the Pacific Islands …
The horrific chemical attack that took place in Syria’s Idlib province this week is yet another brutal milestone for those living fractured lives in a broken country. It’s thought that upwards of 80 people were killed, …
Both Hans Ohff and Hugh White have expressed reservations about Australia’s future submarine and the ability of Australian industry to deliver the project in a timely manner, but they don’t have detailed knowledge of the …
Historians may come to see the American actor Alec Baldwin as US President Donald Trump’s most useful ally. Baldwin’s frequent and widely viewed impersonations of Trump on the comedy show ‘Saturday Night Live’ turn …
Two specialists on strategic and economic issues have urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to plan an early visit to Mar-a-Lago, the same venue where US President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold crucial talks with …
Welcome to The Strategist Six, a feature that provides a glimpse into the thinking of prominent academics, analysts, government officials, military officers, reporters and interesting individuals from around the world. The following interview has been …
The Beat Transnational crime and the Panama Papers The Panama Papers had their first birthday on 3 April and most pundits are thankful for the public attention the leaks brought. However, as the Global Financial …
2016 proved to be a busy year for CT in Europe as the number of jihadi-related attacks increased and the nature of the threat evolved, with most plots involving ‘home grown’ radicalised individuals, as opposed …
International relations sometimes turn on points of deep uncertainty. One of the hottest current debates concerns the capabilities of the AN/TPY-2 radar associated with the THAAD system being deployed in South Korea. The question of …
If Hawaiian-born Obama had done it, people would have said he had kahunas. But we’re talking about New York native Donald Trump, so the word is chutzpa. According to Fox News, Trump handed German Chancellor …