‘If you’re a soldier in China, applying to leave the army is likely to leave a black mark on your social credit score.’ This was the striking opening line of a Sixth Tone article from …
Two questions are frequently raised about the process that selected Australia’s preferred partner for the design and build of the future submarine. The first is why the Defence Department didn’t pursue a ‘son of Collins’, …
The outbreak of a new coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, has shown that we haven’t learned enough from the 2003 SARS epidemic. China continues to struggle with transparency, and, in the absence of data, the international community …
Given the landslide election victory of President Tsai Ing-wen, and the likelihood that Beijing will intensify tactics to isolate Taiwan and pressure its government, Australia should consider stepping up its support for Taiwan’s de facto …
US President Donald Trump’s attacks on unfair Chinese trade and technology policies may have been justified, but his tactics have damaged the alliances and institutions on which the United States depends. Will the short-term gains …
It’s time for the Royal Australian Navy to break out of a 20th-century force design mindset and embrace the robotic revolution at sea. As part of the debate surrounding the Pacific 2019 and Sea Power …
The intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity can make for an irresistible headline. For the media, it’s a great story; for political players, it’s a talking point they can use to appeal to their base or …
Sea state Indonesia has tested its first domestically built submarine in the Bali Sea. Indonesia’s state-owned shipbuilder, PT PAL, has said the contract for the submarine is about 90% complete, with the submarine expected to …
After more than 70 years of terror, killings, torture and disappearances, the international community must renew its efforts to end the conflict in Kashmir. In 2018 and 2019, the Office of the United Nations High …
China increasingly finds itself depicted as the bête noire of nuclear arms control. The US government has said the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty collapsed because of Chinese actions outside the treaty and not merely Russian …
In 1992, Francis Fukuyama’s The end of history and the last man declared liberal democracy and capitalism to be the pre-eminent systems of government and the pinnacle of social evolution. This was it. Liberal democracy …
US President Donald Trump’s ‘phase one’ trade deal with China has set unrealistically high targets for Chinese purchases of US goods and services that can only be met by savage reductions in its imports from …
During this time of national catastrophe in Australia, messages of solidarity have been pouring in from friends all over the world. For me, many have come from French friends in Europe and the Pacific. My …
Brexit! Brexit? Brexit!&#£? Here is proof of an old Yiddish curse: ‘May you get what you wish for.’ Britain has got its wish: it left the European Union on 31 January. The hard part starts …
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s National Press Club address on Wednesday foreshadowed a major role for the Australian Defence Force in responding to natural disasters. From Operation Sovereign Borders to the Pacific ‘step-up’, the Department of …
In this special episode of Policy, Guns and Money, Lisa Sharland, the head of ASPI’s international program, discusses the vital work of gender advisers in the Australian Defence Force with Commander Jen Macklin, Group Captain …
Welcome to our first ‘ASPI suggests’ for 2020. There’s a lot of reading to catch up on, so let’s dive right in. The world The Middle East remains embroiled in conflict and instability. A report …
Scientists say that the climate crisis is real, grave and driven by human activity. However, scientific consensus doesn’t solve four challenging political equations. First, catastrophism doesn’t help. Extreme rhetoric makes domestic and international agreement, through …
Australia has a proud history of engagement with the UN, including participating in and leading UN peace operations, from Cyprus in 1964 to East Timor in 1999. But peace operations have fallen off the Australian …
The strategic policy chapter in the 2016 defence white paper doesn’t provide a framework to determine priorities for force structure, posture and employment. Old concepts such as ‘self-reliance’ have become divorced from their original strategic …