War and truth seldom sit comfortably together. To go to battle is not to go to Sunday school. So to proclaim that the Media Age motto for the Australian Defence Force and the Defence Department …
Barack Obama will today make history as the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. The Atlantic has two photo essays: one looking at the modern city of Hiroshima and A-bomb survivors today; another juxtaposing …
Despite international crises in Europe and the Middle East, the US remains a Pacific nation and is committed to a greater strategic emphasis on the Asia–Pacific region. But in order for this ‘rebalance’policy to translate …
Major geopolitical shifts can be unexpected, such as the once unthinkable situation of European unity crumbling. This prospect may have delighted some observers, but it’s worrying for many others. The European Union (EU) has been …
This month marks the centenary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret British-French accord that launched a decade-long series of adjustments to the borders of the post-Ottoman Middle East. Most commentary on the anniversary has been …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. Australia, as it has done in the past, has the potential to play a role in shaping the Asian economic …
In 1983 Bob Hawke and his new Treasurer Paul Keating came to office promising to resist radical changes to Australia’s economic system. Hawke’s election pitch had recognised the economy was in bad shape, but he …
The Beat Are drug cartels moving to Australia? Australia commands some of the world’s highest prices for drugs so it should come as no surprise that Mexican drug cartels are looking to hone in on …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. Natural and technical disasters are a major strategic security challenge. Deloitte Access Economics’ Building resilient infrastructure report estimates that in …
The 2016 Federal Budget did two important things to promote law enforcement in Australia, but it hasn’t arrested the long-term decline in the resources applied by the Commonwealth to countering organised crime. The additional protection …
On 21 May, Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, leader of the Afghani Taliban, was assassinated by an American drone strike in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, just across the border with Afghanistan. Mullah Mansour’s death was announced by …
Before toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003, much of the west backed the Iraqi dictator during the 1980–88 war against Iran. Iraq’s Shia majority fought against their coreligionists in the Shia Islamic Republic during that war. …
Following costly compromises in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ecuador, Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO of international bank settlement company Swift has told a conference in Brussels that cyber threats are his main source of anxiety. In his speech …
This piece is drawn from Agenda for Change 2016: strategic choices for the next government. The defence of Australia’s interests is a core business of federal governments. Regardless of who wins the election on 2 …
This month’s 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement, the secret Anglo-French pact during World War I to carve French and British spheres of influence out of the then Ottoman territories of Greater Syria and Mesopotamia, …
Sea State USS Zumwalt, the lead ship of the US Navy’s next-generation guided missile destroyers, was formally delivered by shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works last Friday. The eagerly awaited 610-foot ship features a tumblehome …
Churchill’s famous line, ‘Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,’ refers to Stalin’s totalitarian empire. Taken out of context it reinforces a national myth, etched in every Russian mind by the …
Taiwan’s new government already faces two major foreign policy challenges. The first is China’s disappointment over President Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration speech last week. The second—which has hardly been mentioned in the strategic debate—is Taipei’s position …
The announcement that US President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan later this month will include a stop in Hiroshima is welcome news. Of course, Obama will not apologize for America’s 1945 nuclear attack, which annihilated …
The communications demands of the Media Age are so diverse and complex that only a simple answer will suffice. This is back-to-basics meets back-to-the future. Head to the bedrock of first principles while everything else …