The Beat Combatting the tobacco trade The US State Department recently released a new report, The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security, in support of the US National Strategy to Combat …
I was thrilled to see that ‘ASPI suggests’ recently made reference to Star Wars—the film series, not the missile defence system—by way of a September 2009 article from The Economist on the lack of counterinsurgency …
The Paris agreement on climate change is a big win for President Obama, particularly given that he’s invested a lot of political capital in this issue, especially in his second term when he no longer …
China’s military activities on its ocean frontier have given rise to a fear that it’s seeking to expand its power at the expense of others now that it has a more powerful navy. The essence …
We’re kicking off this week over the ditch with our Kiwi friends who have been very busy on the cyber policy front. In Auckland last Friday, Communications Minister Amy Adams launched an updated version of …
Several weeks ago, at a border security conference in London, I thought I was going to see something akin to the recent Ukrainian parliament brawl. A British MP and a Migration Watch representative separately declared …
I recently attended a fascinating ASPI forum on developments in the South China Sea. The forum came against the backdrop of the second round of arbitral tribunal hearings at The Hague on the Philippines’ historic …
In his recent post here on The Strategist, Professor Mark Beeson raises a number of questions which, he believes, we usually overlook in our rush to address more immediate policy debates. His central question—from the …
The world is different following adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December. We now have a new orientation for the global economy set by the ambition of governments to put a limit to climate …
Sea State Last week, the US Navy’s lead Zumwalt-class destroyer commenced its first sea trial. The vessel departed from the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine for its open ocean trials, eight years after construction …
John Coyne’s recent Strategist post raises some interesting questions for intelligence agencies and their paymasters; namely, what are the capabilities that agencies require to continue to protect our security, and what’s a reasonable expectation of …
There are growing fears that Southeast Asia is rapidly emerging as a new beachhead for the extremism of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Particular attention has focused on Indonesia, the world’s most …
With the Government confirming that it has received three proposals under the future submarine competitive evaluation process (CEP) it’s worth considering where we’re headed. There’s a consensus emerging among analysts and commentators that the CEP …
The north of Australia is booming with recognition of significant export opportunities into Asian markets across a number commodity types. In the first quarter of 2014, just over 90,000 cattle were exported from Darwin, mostly …
What were once considered ‘non-traditional threats’ to continental regions of Eurasia and the Americas are now central security challenges for the Pacific island nations. The South Pacific is a region under siege as climate change …
The Southeast Asian rejection of Australia joining ASEAN is simply expressed: ‘You’re not from around here. You don’t think like us. You don’t belong.’ The argument is about identity defined through geography. The previous column …
Dear Strategist readers, It’s been over six months since our blog had a facelift! We’re always looking to improve The Strategist so we would like you to let us know how we can keep delivering considered …
Welcome back to another round-up of reading picks, podcasts and videos in security and defence. America is not ready to fight today’s ‘grey war’s, says former US Special Operations Commander Eric T. Olsen. Defined as conflicts …
The security challenges across the globe are numerous and complex, and the post-Cold War peace dividend is an increasingly distant memory. I see two main security trends at play. The first is ungoverned spaces and …
It’s been 40 years since a UK defence review meant much to Australia and the Asia–Pacific, but the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, released last month, signals a sea change. …