Correction: a previous version of this post incorrectly conflated figures in press reports of the CEP process with those provided earlier in a public address by TKMS. The error is the responsibility of the author, …
There’s a dominant motif that runs through the strategic assessment underpinning the latest Defence White Paper and, despite what China might think, it’s not containment. It’s uncertainty. Australia is beefing up for an uncertain world. …
A wide brown land needs a big, big defence policy and Australia has received that very thing with this morning’s delivery of the 2016 Defence White Paper. Conceived in 2013, gestating like a humongous pearl …
The Beat Spending big: high denomination notes and financial crime A recent report by Peter Sands from Harvard’s Kennedy School examines the link between high denomination notes and financial crime. In the paper, ‘Making it …
The 2014 annexation of the Crimea and subsequent ‘stealth invasion’ of eastern Ukraine by the Russian Federation, as well as Moscow’s commitment to Basher al-Assad’s regime in Syria, are indicative of a sweeping wave of …
Last week’s revelation by Fox News that China has placed two batteries of its HQ-9 air defence missile system on Woody Island in the Paracels has ignited arguments over possible responses within and beyond the …
With the world’s attention focused on the ongoing crisis in Syria, it seems odd that Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, has largely flown under the radar. Appointed in July 2014, de …
Western Australia’s parliament was hacked last Tuesday with a computer virus forcing the shutdown of its telecommunications systems. According to Speaker Michael Sutherland, the attack impeded a number of house operations including, ‘Hansard publications, the …
On 4 February, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the US Navy had developed a new anti-ship missile (ASM)—the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6). But that ‘new’ missile isn’t as new as it might …
Albert Palazzo’s paper Forging Australian Land Power: A Primer and his response to John Blaxland’s critique are of real value in our current hypoxic policy world. Perhaps unintentionally, their contributions highlight three re-occurring themes in …
In the wake of North Korea’s nuclear test in January and its satellite launch in February, South Korea has shown a new level of interest in the topic of ballistic missile defence. Seoul officials are …
‘The United States, China, and maybe the European Union, if Great Britain stays within it’ will lead tomorrow’s world; in fact, continued EU membership is the only way for the United Kingdom to secure ‘a …
The debate on SEA 5000 to date has focused on capability to engage in high intensity naval combat, likely as part of a taskforce, with some capacity to lob a few land attack missiles into …
Sea State The second meeting of the India–US Joint Working Group of Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation concluded in New Delhi on 18 February, after three days of talks. The meeting is the second of three …
George C. Scott played the somewhat crazy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, in the dark cold war comedy Dr Strangelove. One of Buck’s great lines was ‘what’s cooking on the …
This interview with military strategist David Kilcullen launches The Strategist Six, a new feature that will provide a glimpse into the thinking of prominent academics, reporters, government officials, military officers and discipline leaders from around …
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less’. It would appear that there’s no dearth of Humpty Dumpties …
Stopping radicalisation and disrupting plots are appropriately the focus of the majority of Australia’s counterterrorism efforts. But there are other avenues to undermine the terrorist business model that are lower profile but have the potential …
Global attention was galvanised this month when World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Margaret Chan declared the Zika virus to be a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO has expressed concern about the …
Minder (noun): Body guard; staffer working for a politician/minister. Derived from London West End slang for a muscle man who protects a criminal or shady operator. Minding (verb): The act of working as a Minder, …