In a game of chess, the queen is the ultimate power on the board. It can move in any direction and is a looming figure that any opponent should be wary of. If we’re to …
After a half-century of occupying Palestinian territory, Israel is succumbing to its deepest ethno-centrist impulses, and increasingly rejecting recognized boundaries. Israel is now on its way to join the growing club of illiberal democracies, and …
The Timor Sea conciliation between Australia and Timor-Leste has already been the subject of some significant developments in 2017. Following a contentious period last year when Australia actively contested the competency of the Conciliation Commission, …
According to an old joke, Americans need good peripheral vision to be able to find Australia on a map. When we attract attention, as often as not it’s for some natural calamity (floods, bushfires, shark …
The Beat On board with ThinkUKnow National Safer Internet Day fell on Tuesday of this week, and the cyber safety education program ThinkUKnow is now Australia-wide. Every state law enforcement agency now works with the …
President Donald Trump’s critics have consistently underestimated his political communication skills, perhaps because he is so different from predecessors such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Both FDR and Reagan, after all, were known …
America’s new President seems to be painting himself into a corner. The Muslim travel ban has misfired with one court decision after another challenging the rationale that it was necessary in order to provide security …
It takes two people to make a phone call, but when it’s between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull, the call doesn’t happen by accident. Usually when world leaders speak together, it’s only after advisers and …
Australia and Indonesia have agreed to deepen their cooperation on cyber security issues following the latest meeting of the bilateral Ministerial Council on Law and Security. The joint communique noted the Ministers had agreed to …
President Donald Trump’s emergent foreign policy agenda is a repudiation of the largely bipartisan consensus that has dominated US grand strategy since the end of World War Two: that the US should seek and maintain …
Satire has long been a friend to those wishing to expose the absurdities inherent in extremist ideologies. During the 1930s, British fascists were lampooned by the literary satire of P.G. Wodehouse, Nancy Mitford and Joseph …
Sea State A Saudi Arabian frigate was attacked by Houthi rebels in waters west of Yemen on 30 January. Conflicting reports are floating around about the attack method—while the official Saudi Press Agency attributed it …
One of 2016’s more notable surprises was the selection, in April, of French shipbuilder DCNS as the principal partner to design and build Australia’s future submarines. Few Australians would have anticipated that outcome, but it’s …
When President Trump signed the executive order on 27 January suspending the country’s refugee program and restricting entry to the US for citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Libya, …
As Russia’s campaign to influence the US election falls out of the news cycle, it’s important to maintain a focus on the key lessons from the Democratic National Committee hack in order to understand what …
Since the 1960s, Australia and Japan have built one of Asia’s closest partnerships. I was going to say one of Asia’s most unusual, but lots of relationships in this region are strange. When times get …
Welcome back to ASPI suggests for 2017. Boy, what a week… Our first suggestion of the year has to be The Atlantic’s latest cover story. How to Build an Autocracy, written by one-time George W. …
Amid the extreme and often emotional reactions around the world to the US government’s suspension of travel and refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries on counterterrorism grounds, it’s often hard to find real facts. A …
The Prime Minister’s Office will be keen to downplay the significance of last weekend’s phone call between Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump, but both the call and the fact that it leaked in …
After the Bush administration, many believed that President Obama would bring stability to the global order with a fusion of eloquent rhetoric, a preference for multilateralism and a cautious approach to exercising the politico-military capabilities …