Australia, like Canada, is well placed to be a global leader in the critical minerals sector. Our nation has the natural endowment, technical expertise and experience, global mining footprint, and mining capital base to back …
Australia is joining the US and Japan in developing systems for shielding territory from air and missile attack. The news comes as the Department of Defence and Royal Australian Air Force are under pressure to …
Mark Twain is often quoted as saying, ‘History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.’ He might have added that when history does rhyme, the results are often disastrous. Just as the territorial ambitions …
Global critical mineral demand is expected to increase dramatically in coming decades, from a 7.1 million tonnes in 2020 to 42.3 million tonnes in 2050. Global commitments to decarbonisation are the main drivers of this …
Vietnam has become the third country in the Association of South East Asian Nations to adopt a national action plan for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, promoting meaningful inclusion of women in peace …
Although 2024 is being heralded as a banner year for elections, with dozens of countries, representing more than half the global population, holding polls, for some it marks the nadir of democracy. Cambodia is one …
Skilled and unskilled labour is already scarce in the Northern Territory construction-project sector, and it will soon get scarcer. With the Australian and US defence departments well into upgrading bases in the territory, two big …
Almost a year ago, the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) set homework for the Department of Defence, including reprioritising the country’s rolling plan for military capability spending, the Integrated Investment Program (IIP). That update is now …
Nuclear deterrence, with its inherent risk of annihilation, cannot remain the bedrock of international security. Nuclear states, particularly great powers, can and should work on new conventional strategic options that can effectively deter aggression without …
With Indonesian President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo fast approaching the end of his 10-year term and the February election result now official, it’s time to consider how incoming president Prabowo Subianto will shape the country’s strategic …
Australia’s military weakness in an increasingly threatening regional environment requires that serious consideration be given to setting up a defence strategy and procurement body that operates with the same independence as the central bank. The …
Solomon Islanders are set to vote on 17 April in an election that has significance within and beyond the country’s borders. It is the first chance for them to vote on policy directions that the …
As Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail’, but in a time of great uncertainty in a world beset by economic, geopolitical and climate-related challenges, how can the Australian Public …
Once the sick man of Europe, Germany seems to be under the weather once again. That might be putting it mildly: much as it did in the late 1990s, Germany is staring down the barrel …
The strategic potential of Submarine Rotational Force-West, the AUKUS initiative that commits the United States and United Kingdom to forward-deploy a small flotilla of nuclear-powered attack submarines to HMAS Stirling, near Fremantle, isn’t adequately appreciated. …
The integration of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems is essential to ensuring that Australia is capable of defending its interests now and into the future, but we as a country must be careful not to …
Britain is becoming a model of what a smaller partner in the Pacific should be. Since announcing its Pacific Uplift policy five years ago, Britain has taken small but stable steps in building its presence …
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) is very clear: Australia must change the way it plans for and acquires defence capabilities. The DSR recognises that doing so will require a net assessment to examine the …
Might China try to attack Taiwan by 2027? The outgoing chief of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Philip Davidson, thought so in 2021, and he recently reaffirmed his assessment. But whether the United States and China …
In discussing Vietnamese politics, the commentariat falls back on the word ‘opaque’. This usually means that it does not know what is happening. The term is resurfacing in the wake of the resignation on 19 …