Australia’s 2026 National Defence Strategy (NDS) and Integrated Investment Program (IIP) demonstrate a stronger commitment to cyber defence and capability. They reinforce that cyber for Defence is not just about securing networks but also about …
The Australian government’s decision to curtail the Inland Rail Project was politically brave. Governments rarely walk away from troubled megaprojects once billions have been spent and expectations have hardened. Yet the real issue sits well …
Most Australians already know something is wrong with our information environment. An Australian National University survey of 20,000 average Australians found disinformation consistently ranked among top national security concerns. Participants rated it as more serious …
Strategic competition now extends far beyond military capability and economic strength. Liberal democracies therefore have a strategic interest in cultivating a confident civic patriotism that strengthens social cohesion, reinforces institutional legitimacy and supports national resilience. …
In January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the World Economic Forum something that Western democracies have long known but rarely said in public. The rules-based international order, he observed, was always a pleasant fiction. …
The most dangerous assumption in current contingency planning is that any war, even a regional war involving the United States, would be short. Four interacting forces would make high-intensity regional conflicts hard to terminate: regime …
China’s pressure on Taiwan increasingly relies on vessels that aren’t warships. Instead, Beijing is deploying a maritime grey-zone fleet: a network of civilian and paramilitary vessels used to harass, intimidate and probe Taiwan while remaining …
AI is the most consequential technology we will ever create. The visit by Japan’s pro-industry Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to Australia this week was a chance to bind our efforts with those of a natural …
Every system operating under finite resources – seemingly every system now – needs to compress its environment: simplify, filter, decide what to pay attention to and what to let go. The fix isn’t to track …
Australia has an obvious way to reduce its vulnerability to disruption of fuel supplies: making battery-electric locomotives the standard means of freight-rail traction and, through resulting cost savings, draw more long-distance goods transportation onto trains. …
The international system is currently experiencing a period of profound structural upheaval. The long-standing, rules-based international order – the very foundation of global stability since the mid-20th century – is being openly challenged to varying …
Historian and media commentator James Curran is wrong to suggest we should fear that closer defence ties with Japan could drag Australia into a conflict with China, as he argued in the Australian Financial Review …
AI development is often imagined as a race for scale in which competitive edge is gained by harnessing enough energy to operate AI technology. Tech billionaires such as Elon Musk have stoked this narrative, suggesting …
In 2025, Ukrainian-led opposing forces defeated NATO formations in two major exercises. At exercise Hedgehog in Estonia, about 10 drone operators with cheap first-person-view drones rendered two NATO battalions combat-ineffective in half a day. At …
I’ve just finished reading a fantasy novel written entirely by an AI. The Second Son of the House of Bells is the story of a young bellmaker whose keen musical ear makes him an agent of political …
The Northern Territory still struggles to convert opportunity into sustained economic growth because workforce shortages, weak enabling infrastructure and slow approvals continue to choke investment. With the May budgets in Darwin and Canberra fast approaching, …
India’s commissioning of the submarine INS Aridhaman last month is significant as a strategic marker in the evolution of India’s sea-based nuclear deterrent. In adding a third boat to India’s fleet of nuclear-powered ballistic missile …
The market for commercial cyber intrusion capabilities (CCICs) is moving faster than the frameworks designed to govern it. What began as a niche ecosystem of surveillance vendors has evolved into a sprawling, fragmented industry. While …
Dennis Voznesenski’s War and Wheat examines the complex relationship between grain markets and global conflict. Amid an increasingly precarious global security situation, the book – written by one of Australia’s most respected agricultural economists – …
Japan is unlikely to join the submarine component of the AUKUS defence partnership between Australia, Britain and the United States, but it could help mitigate the risks associated with Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. This …