The so-called ‘valley of death’ in Australian naval shipbuilding is already upon us, but we also have the means to reduce the severity and then to build on this traumatic experience to create a productive, …
This month, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security turns 15. But what has changed for women and girls in conflict over the past decade and a half? Nearly 300 schoolgirls …
While China’s unilateral declaration of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over disputed waters in the East China Sea (ECS) caught many by surprise, today’s debate circles around the likelihood that Beijing might take the …
Sea State The US Navy has reportedly declared its intentions to send a surface ship inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit China claims for its man-made islands in the South China Sea. According to the Financial …
Mike Burgess, Telstra’s Chief Information Security Officer, claims that attributing blame for cyberattacks is a ‘distraction’. It’s hard not to empathise with his views when, according to the Australian Centre for Cyber Security, 85% of …
The Parramatta shooting and its aftermath demonstrate common difficulties democracies face in counterterrorism. On Friday 2 October, 15-year old boy Farhad Jabar fatally shot NSW Police employee Curtis Cheng at Parramatta police headquarters, before being …
On 19 September, Japan’s upper house passed a set of bills that allow the country to deploy its military overseas and play a much more prominent strategic role in peacekeeping and collective self-defence. Viewed from …
Tomorrow, ASPI’s Border Security Program will launch its new Special Report on crystal methamphetamine (‘ice’): Methamphetamine: focusing Australia’s national ice strategy on the problem, not the symptoms. Australia’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for ice has created major …
The proposition that Australia should spend the next decade seeking observer status in ASEAN will get lots of kicks in Southeast Asia. However, the kicks in Canberra about joining ASEAN are nearly as hard. Canberra’s …
The US-led airstrike on a Médecins sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which killed 12 MSF workers and 10 patients, is a story that has a long way to run. General John Campbell, the American …
In two posts for The Strategist, Why Australia Should Build Its Own Submarines (part 2 here), I discussed the benefits of building all submarines in Australia, including better management of the cost of ownership through …
There’s been a lengthy and lively debate on The Strategist lately regarding the future of Australia’s surface combatants, specifically the SEA 5000 future frigate. Attracting little attention on the other hand was last months’ closure …
Michael Auslin has called for a ‘new realism’ in US foreign policy toward China, one that ‘begins with an official acceptance that we are locked in a competition with China that is of Beijing’s choosing’. …
We’ve been at the PAC2015 maritime expo and conference this week. There’s only really been two topics of conversation on the trade floor: the future submarine and the future frigates. Admittedly those two projects amount …
The Beat Top states for profitable organised crime The World Economic Forum have released their Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016, revealing how organised crime reduces business competitiveness by creating disincentives for private investment and economic transactions, …
In a thought-provoking piece, Graeme Dobell outlines not only why he thinks Australia should join ASEAN but also, more daringly, why it will join ASEAN. The argument raises important questions of Australia’s relationship with Southeast …
The East Timor crisis presented Australia with a unique opportunity to act like a real regional middle power. For a long time Australia has been a middle power with small power pretensions. East Timor made …
Researchers in Singapore have demonstrated how hackers can use a smartphone mounted on a drone to steal data intended for wireless printers. The technology detects an insecure printer and intercepts documents by establishing a fake …
Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his first state visit to the US from 22 to 25 September. On the eve of Xi’s visit, I wrote that Beijing was carefully managing the expectations of the visit, …
I noted with interest and bemusement that the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade has announced an inquiry into the capability of Defence’s physical sciences and engineering (PSE) workforce. I’m interested because in …