When Australia discusses China without mentioning China directly, it talks of the need for a ‘rules-based’ order. In the Defence White Paper which Canberra issued in February, ‘rules’ is used 64 times—48 of these in …
Hillary Clinton delivered her major foreign policy and national security address on Thursday, and the shade she threw at presumptive Republican nominee Trump’s foreign policy plans received more attention than her own. Vox dives into …
Asia long ago took to heart Churchill’s admonition that it’s better to jaw-jaw than war-war. A lot of talking goes on around here. And the jaw-jaw intensity has risen as Asia confronts a long slope …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. Regardless of their political stripes, the next Australian government has a solid foundation from which to approach cyber policy, comprised …
‘Alternative Futures’ is a methodology sometimes used in strategic planning, in which the robustness of current plans is tested against various hypothetical futures. (The RAND Corporation sometimes uses this approach—they used it to test US …
The media philosophy offered in this series is the belief that in the Media Age the more you give the more you make. The continuous flow of honest news—good and bad—from the Australian Defence Force …
The Beat Let’s talk about drugs The AFP announced last week that a Joint Organised Crime Task Force operation in Western Australia had resulted in charges being laid against 14 people and the seizure of …
The current conflict in the Middle East isn’t the first in which online communication tools—social media platforms, private messaging apps and alike—have played a role. But the Islamic State’s ability to engage people online is …
This piece is drawn from ASPI’s forthcoming publication, Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. Australia’s defence strategy is a topic much loved by academics, and there’s a rich literature about its various …
By all accounts, the much-anticipated Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea was a non-event. If the first such meeting of North Korea’s highest organ in more than 35 years had any impact at …
IT Security firm Symantec believes it has tied recent high-profile attacks against Asian banks using the SWIFT network to a North Korean group. Symantec has linked a piece of malware used in the attacks with …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. The day-to-day focus of most of a government’s time in office is on matters seemingly unrelated to terrorism and counterterrorism. …
Jutland veterans were not alone in their experience of failure and feelings of regret after the First World War, nor in their desire to get the Royal Navy back on track. Andrew Cunningham, later to …
This past weekend marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, a day established by the UN General Assembly in 2002 to pay tribute to military, police and civilian peacekeepers and honour those that have …
‘I feel so proud of my city,’ my interlocutor says, referring to the election of the first Muslim, Sadiq Khan, as Mayor of London. She is Catholic, though she identifies first and foremost as British. …
Sea State Take a step into the future and have a quick look at the US Navy’s new railgun, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. Using electromagnetic rails, the high-powered weapon fires an 11kg projectile …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. Australia’s a three ocean country with significant national interests in the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans, as well as interests …
One hundred years ago on 31 May and 1 June 1916, 250 ships of the British and German navies fought an abortive action in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark—the only direct encounter …
While researching a recent post, I went to the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) website, looking for notifications of sales to Australia on its Major Arms Sales page. I didn’t find what I was …
The rapidly changing strategic landscape in the South China Sea threatens to marginalise Australia unless the government takes positive action now to remain a relevant and influential player in the region’s strategic calculus. Positive action …