This post has been adapted from a recent ASPI panel discussion ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’. The full video of the event is available here. As a born optimist, I share Benjamin Franklin’s sentiment—misquoted …
There have been at least seventy books by individual authors published under the title Gallipoli in as many decades. From the British Poet Laureate John Masefield in 1916 to Australia’s Les Carlyon in 2001 and …
If you missed last night’s ASPI event ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’, Felicity Norman has a cracking rundown of the main themes on New Mandala here (video of the event to follow shortly). Australia isn’t the only country …
We woke up to media news this morning that US B-1 strategic bombers would be ‘coming to Australia to deter Beijing’s South China Sea ambitions’. This referred to a statement made by US Defence Department …
ISIL is having considerable success in employing public social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda. In Australian cases like Jake Bilardi and Mehmet Biber, we’ve seen the social media component playing a role in the radicalisation and recruitment …
The perennial problem for governments in grappling with cyber security and cyber policy more broadly has been ‘how do we engage the private sector’. Those who spend countless hours trawling through policy documents sigh at …
Getting Australian–Indonesian relations back on track is a politically sensitive issue and weighing it up may not be the prudent thing to do while there is still a lot of anger in the heart of …
The Beat Criminals uniting in drug trade The Crime Commission has revealed that criminal groups who would normally be enemies are putting their differences aside to reap the benefits of Australia’s lucrative drug trade. Cooperation …
The Government has announced an overall increase of $1.2bn over the next four years in national security spending. This new money comes in addition to the $1bn counter-terrorism and Iraq operations funding announced last year—and …
At the Global Conference on CyberSpace last month, Australia argued that the international landscape was too ‘premature’ for a comprehensive international agreement to govern international security in cyberspace. With disagreements over even the most basic …
As Joe Hockey rose to his feet in the House of Representatives to launch the Abbott Government’s second budget for 2015/16, shipbuilders in Melbourne were informed by BAE Systems that another 80 permanent skilled jobs …
David McDonough gave a stout defence of the Air Warfare Destroyer on this blog. In several respects it’s a superior platform to our existing fleet and some proposed alternatives—namely, the smaller, cheaper ships suggested by …
Russia and China are building on their long-held ‘uneasy friendship ’ with a new cybersecurity agreement. Under the deal, the two countries will jointly counteract technology that may ‘destabilize the internal political and socio-economic atmosphere,’ …
At first glance, the 2015 Budget was a very good one for Defence. Funding will grow to $32.1 billion next financial year, representing a 4.2% real year-on-year increase. And the much-heralded 2% of GDP target finally …
I was recently asked to give a lecture at ANU about the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). For those born after 1990—of which I encounter a distressingly large number in my professional life these days—RMA …
Malcolm Fraser, Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister, died in March 2015, at the age of 84. Fraser was Prime Minister from November 1975, to March 1983. This is part of ASPI’s new Strategic Insights paper, Reassessing Malcolm …
Sea State Japan is a serious contender to nab the SEA 1000 project, as news broke last week that the country is expected to provide Australia classified data on Soryu-class submarines. Previously, Japan has only …
Not since at least the end of the Cold War has it been so easy to paint a disturbing picture of the global strategic landscape. Ukraine’s sovereignty has been trashed by Russia. Large swaths of …
It’s budget week in Canberra. Politicians and influencers fly in to confab with stressed bureaucrats, complain about the cold and fog and watch autumn leaves falling faster than interest rates. At this time thoughts turn …
One of the topics at ASPI’s upcoming Army’s Future Force Structure Options Conference is ‘Land 400 and policy issues required for success’. A point of contention regarding LAND 400 Phase 2 is the estimated weight …