The Beat Documentary: gangster turned lawyer defending criminals in Spain Vice has released a 45 minute documentary looking at one of Britain’s most notorious reformed criminals, Jason Coghlan, who was jailed in 1999 for armed …
‘In 30 years of practice I don’t think I’ve seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real …
In my previous post, I recommended Australia develop a networked Theatre ASW (TASW) capability—including building its own Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS)—as an essential capability in the face of likely Chinese PLA-N operations in our …
In offering his condolences and support to Belgium in the wake of the devastating terrorist attacks in Brussels, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has assured Australians that we’re in a much stronger position than our European …
Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba is the first by a US president since Calvin Coolidge went in 1928. American investors, expat Cubans, tourists, scholars, and scam artists will follow in Obama’s wake. Normalization of the …
The encryption debate has raged on this week with new developments in the rift between the US government and Apple over access to the iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino attackers. …
Most people know by now that last month was the hottest February since modern records began. It was also the hottest overall month on record, and by the largest margin. The global average temperature anomaly …
Following the submission that James Mugg and I made to the Senate Inquiry into planned acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter), I was invited along to give evidence yesterday. It’s always good …
It’s time for Britain’s leaders to heed the words of US Army general Eric Shinseki: ‘If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less’. The EU’s current institutions no longer meet its …
Six months ago, when President Juan Manuel Santos announced with much fanfare that the Government and FARC had agreed to sign a final peace treaty on 23 March 2016, many in Colombia believed the current …
Sea State The claws are out in the battle for the Australia’s $50 billion future submarine contract, with French contender DCNS claiming last week that Japan’s plan to install high-tech lithium ion batteries in the …
Peter Jennings is right to point out that siting surface-to-air missiles (SAM) on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands is a strategic game-changer for the South China Sea. It’s also the logical corollary to building …
Last Sunday’s incident north of Indonesia’s Natuna islands, in which two armed Chinese Coastguard ships forced an Indonesian patrol craft to release an intruding Chinese trawler, shows once again that Jakarta must confront the reality …
Last week I spoke at the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Conference sponsored by the National Security College at the ANU and supported by the Embassy of Japan in Australia. I was asked to address the question …
A key challenge in the coming years for Australia will be the PLA’s growing ability to project military power beyond what Chinese military thinkers deem to be the first and second island chains (see map …
James Goldrick’s recent post for The Strategist shows that many classes of submarine remain in service for a period of 30–40 years. By this calculation alone, the Collins Class won’t need to retire until the …
A former Secretary-General of ASEAN, Ong Keng Yong, says ASEAN could create a special category of partnership just for Australia and New Zealand. Ong says Australia and New Zealand are so important to ASEAN’s Community …
After romping in the Florida primary on Tuesday, critics and analysts are starting to take seriously the once seemingly slim chance of The Donald taking the Oval Office. The Economist’s Global Forecasting Service has ranked …
Last week I gave a conference presentation examining how the public and private sectors work together, and at times clash, on issues of national security. Using Rod Lyon’s excellent schematic, I examined how the private …
The recently published history of the British submarine service since 1945, The Silent Deep by Peter Hennessy and James Jinks, contains much food for thought for those interested in Australia’s future submarine capability. One particular …