Cyber Wrap

The third wave of the Internet is upon us, or so suggested AOL co-founder Steve Case at this year’s SXSW Interactive in Austin this week. According to Case, companies will need to foster partnerships with …

Gun trafficking and mandatory jail terms

With an estimated 260,000 illegal (unregistered) guns already in Australia, the horse is already on its way out the stable door. Still, every illegal firearm counts: the significance of the threat is such that government …

Australia and Indonesia: no way out

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran continue to endure their mental torture, awaiting a final decision on their execution. It’s a slim hope but Indonesia’s political and judicial systems are opaque and bendable enough that their …

Rapid Fire

In this installment of Rapid Fire, we take a look at the ground campaign in Iraq, concerns over Shia militias, use of chemical weapons by Islamic State, foreign fighters in Nigeria, Putin’s reasoning for annexing …

Vanuatu: the aftermath

Cyclone Pam—Category 5—has hammered Vanuatu. An estimated 260,000 people were in the disaster zone when the cyclone struck on Friday and continued over the islands on Saturday. The cyclone is one of the biggest to …

Flight Path

In this week’s post, we cover intelligence leaks, supersonic engines, the contentious LRS-B funding plan, gaps in close air support capability, and the most powerful rocket booster ever built. Last week, Chinese state media reported …

The Martin Place siege and the media

The joint Commonwealth and NSW Review into the Martin Place siege released last month has a section on public communication. Among its findings, the Review praised the media for a job well done during the …

Sea State: future frigate contenders

As ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet conference draws closer, we take a look at the three design options, some of the international design contenders and the debate around the build location for Australia’s future frigate under …

Tasting the new DFAT omelette

Some costs and benefits of Australia’s Foreign Affairs revolution are clear. The revolution was DFAT swallowing AusAID (Pre-FAT eats WasAID, in Casey Building argot), crunching together diplomatic pinstripes and aidies. A benefit for the Abbott …

ASPI suggests

Welcome back for another serve of the latest defence and security links, media and events, this week coming to you from the Brisbane Line. As the government’s data retention legislation waits in the wings, the …

CT Scan

This week’s CT Scan shines a light on Australia’s ‘white jihadi’, marriage and motherhood in the Islamic State, Boko Haram, terror trends in Southeast Asia, neo-Nazism, and the impact of terrorism research. With the identification …

Integrity at the Border

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) is going to be a border enforcement agency! That’s hardly an earth-shattering statement, given the public policy dialogue in the media and senate estimates over the last …

The Beat

AUSTRAC Typologies of Crime report The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has published their annual typologies of crime and case studies report. It makes for interesting reading, both in terms of how people …

The Nashos and Vietnam

Amid the attention to the various centenaries of the first world war, we should not overlook the half-centenaries of the Vietnam War. As a recent ‘Rear Vision’ program on the ABC reminded us, fifty years …