The puzzle of security sector reform in Indonesia

In his book on the transformation of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Lieutenant General (Retired) Agus Wijojo—now Governor of the National Resilience College in Jakarta—outlined the security sector reforms (SSR) undertaken by the TNI since …

Turkey’s baffling coup

Military coups—successful or otherwise—follow a predictable pattern in Turkey. Political groups—typically Islamists—deemed by soldiers to be antagonistic to Kemal Ataturk’s vision of a secular Turkey gain increasing power. Tensions rise, often accompanied by violence on …

A win for Widodo: Indonesia’s new police chief

Indonesian President Joko Widodo may have finally come of age as a leader with his decision to ignore seniority—and Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri—in choosing counter-terrorism guru, Tito Karnavian, as Indonesia’s …

A strategy for Australia in space

Australia uses satellites to support national defence, economic, and scientific activities, but isn’t a ‘space power’ that can provide independent space systems for national needs. The Department of Industry, Innovation and Scientific Research’s 2015 ‘State …

Malcolm Turnbull the fixer

Politicians can be divided into ‘straights’, ‘fixers’ and ‘maddies,’ and Malcolm Turnbull must quickly find his inner fixer. The transformation isn’t impossible because Turnbull has already tried the other two categories. In his first stint …

ASPI suggests

It has been an exciting week across Asia, Europe and the US, kicking off with the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea’s award on the Philippines v China case. There’s been no shortage …

Trinity and the nuclear foundation stone

Tomorrow’s an important anniversary on the strategic calendar. The first US nuclear test—codenamed Trinity—occurred on 16 July 1945. The event represented both the culmination of the work of the Manhattan Project and the dawn of …

Japan’s return to single-party dominance

Japanese voters delivered a landslide victory to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling coalition in an upper house election held on 10 July. While the outcome was never in doubt, the shift in the …

Two crucial truths in the Chilcot report?

The Chilcot report underlines two crucial truths that further undermine the Iraq War legacies of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. The first is that the invasion was unnecessary, precisely because the US-led …

The South China Sea is not China’s

To no one’s surprise, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has upheld all the key arguments of the Philippines in its case against China on the application of the United Nations Convention …

Cyber wrap

Last Wednesday the European Parliament approved the new European Union Network and Information Security directive, which applies common cybersecurity and reporting obligations for operators of essential services, such as energy, transport, health finance and water …

NATO comes home

As befits most public documents issued at international gatherings, the communique released at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s summit in Warsaw was both long and tedious, covering every conceivable global security threat …