Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test on 6 January. Technically, we know comparatively little about the device that it tested. In terms of seismic signature the blast seems to have been from a bomb about …
‘Monetary policy is 98 per cent talk and 2 per cent action.’ – Ben Bernanke So even central banking—that combination of the dismal science and monetary madness—is virtually voodoo, driven most of the time by smoke …
Originally published 4 November 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters. Vladimir Putin once said that he knew where Australia was but never thought about it. Australian leaders too have seldom had reason to think about post-Soviet …
Originally published 17 July 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi and Amelia Long. ISIS appears to be exerting a steadily growing pull in Indonesia, with its appeal now reaching beyond existing extremist groups. It’s successfully presenting …
Originally published 28 July 2015. Picked by David Lang. In a recent post, I argued that the western strategy against ISIS is failing and described the group as a state-like entity destabilising the greater Middle …
Originally published 23 June 2015. Picked by Amelia Long. The United Nations appears to have seized on its 70th anniversary this year to undertake a series of high-level reviews (previously noted here). Long awaited among …
Originally published 30 September 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters. Early on the morning of 1 October 1965, seven detachments of troops drove through the quiet streets of Jakarta, bound for the homes of the most …
Originally published 5 May 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi. Recent reports demonstrate that the online environment is playing an ongoing role in the radicalisation of those joining jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Oliver Bridgeman’s …
Originally published 27 April 2015. Picked by David Lang. Malcolm Fraser’s greatest contribution to foreign policy was the new consensus on Asia that he embraced, fostered and cemented. Fraser’s Asia policy drew large elements of …
Originally published 1 July 2015. Picked by Amelia Long. Below is an extract from ASPI’s publication Gen Y jihadists: preventing radicalisation in Australia, launched 30 June 2015. In 2014, the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium …
Originally published 11 September 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters and Natalie Sambhi. ‘Things are seldom what they seem’—so wrote the librettist W.S. Gilbert in HMS Pinafore. The current refugee crisis in Europe looks like a …
Originally published 18 August 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi. Warfare is changing, and not just in the most obvious and visible ways. Yes, there are new technologies, newly assertive foes, and new ideologies. But to …
Thanks for joining us for a big 2015! The editorial team would like to thank all of the readers who’ve helped establish our blog as an informed source of opinion and analysis on defence and …
Originally published 27 January 2015. Picked by David Lang. No Australian minister has made a full-blooded speech on nuclear deterrence for many a long year—not since the early 1990s, I suspect. In truth, that’s not …
When I first moved from China to Australia in 2011 I was surprised to hear rumblings about the perils of Australian complacency in the face of rapid changes taking place across the Indo–Pacific. Australia’s destiny …
China hosted the second World Internet Conference (WIC) in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province this week with President Xi Jinping delivering a keynote address at the opening ceremony. He called for international respect of ‘cyber sovereignty’, which …
Political controversy, design issues and a logistics foul up, including a failure to allocate the resources to sustain the capability—there are some strikingly familiar themes in the acquisition of Australia’s first submarines, two 700-tonne E-class …
This year saw the 40th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975 by the governor-general, Sir John Kerr. It also marks the 40th anniversary of an enduring conspiracy theory—that Kerr’s …
Sea State Last week, China’s military carried out war games in the disputed South China Sea, with warships, submarines and fighter jets simulating cruise missile strikes on ships. The warships simulated the defeat of anti-ship …
The Australian Government recently announced plans to invest $26 million in the development of quantum computing technology as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA). Prime Minister Turnbull has argued that NISA is …