Originally published 7 July 2016. Recent tumultuous political events—including Australia’s election—seem likely to produce a troubling set of strategic consequences. Some of those consequences will be reflected in the strategic policies of key individual Western …
Originally published 30 March 2016. The US presence in the Indo–Asia–Pacific is transforming, and Australia has a major interest in how it unfolds. That transformation is driven in large part by China’s rise, and has …
Originally published 9 November 2016. Donald Trump’s victory marks the biggest political upset in living memory. A man without solid party support nor any major newspaper editorial or celebrity endorsements has defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton, the …
Originally published 6 October. By all accounts, there’s to be another review of Australia’s intelligence agencies in the near future. The ‘major independent review’ will be the third in 15 years and it’s variously reported …
That’s all from The Strategist this year. From Monday we’ll be republishing some of our top picks for 2016. If you need something extra to sate your appetite, head on over to the publications section of ASPI’s website. There …
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has assiduously courted Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting with him more than a dozen times in four years. This month he hosted Putin in Tokyo and in his hometown of …
Detecting, disrupting and denying terrorist financing is vital to degrading terrorist organisations. Counter terrorism financing (CTF) measures can reduce terrorists’ access to funds, restricting their ability to finance their operations. And tracking the movement of …
The team searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the vastness of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia is working with the slenderest of clues painstakingly drawn from minute fragments of evidence. (The Australian …
There is no doubt about the waves of discontent and anger sweeping Western politics. The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union after four decades of membership, jeopardizing all the intricate trading and political …
The Beat Doing a number on profiling There’s a push for Victoria Police to collect race and ethnicity data, a move that could help monitor the effectiveness of measures to counter racial profiling. Following a …
For thirteen years, the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC) has served as a regional rally point for much needed counterterrorism capacity development and cooperation. Since its inception in 2004 with strong bilateral support …
Last week New York’s attention was focused briefly on another major political transition taking place in 2017. A few blocks from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, ambassadors, diplomats and UN staffers were meeting in the …
The word ‘populism’ was everywhere in 2016. Political leaders claiming to speak for the people have achieved significant victories in Europe, Asia, and, with the election of Donald Trump, the United States. Populism first described …
This week we continue our look back at some of the year’s biggest cyber stories in our final cyber wrap for 2016! China finally adopted its controversial new cybersecurity law on 7 November, much to …
Last month, Prime Minister Turnbull revealed that Australia is undertaking offensive cyber operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. That followed on from the first acknowledgement that Australia possesses offensive cyber capabilities at the launch …
While Australia and Canada are similar in many ways, their approaches to defence policy are quite different, not least when it comes to their defence budgets. While Australia’s GDP is about 18% smaller than that …
It might seem ludicrous to suggest that Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country’s most powerful leader since Mao, will be in danger in 2017. But looks can be deceiving, and his consolidation of power may …
If you can fit your own nation’s interests into a submarine without it sinking, you’re doing well. But try to fit in the interests of a second and even a third nation and there’s danger …
Sea State The US Navy released its much-anticipated 2016 Force Structure Assessment (FSA) last week and the results are sure to please proponents of a large USN The FSA advocates a 355 ship navy, which …
Over the past week, Syrian government forces have recaptured the city of Aleppo and Iraqi forces have pushed deeper into Mosul. But the Middle East remains insecure, unstable and ungovernable. Those factors will enable Islamist …