ASPI suggests: Christmas edition

We’re kicking off the last round-up for 2014 with peek into the new year: our colleagues at CSIS have predicted five events that will shape Southeast Asia in 2015 including a ruling on the Philippines’ South China …

The information war, or, editors as gatekeepers

Police reporting—a catalogue of the worst crime, murders and personal tragedies occupying our underworld—was big in the 1980s. So I knew I was being given a break when told I’d be spending a couple of …

Latin America matters to Australia

Underestimating Latin America’s trade opportunities and transnational organised threats may compromise Australia’s economic and security agenda. It’s time for Australian businesses, government and public to take a closer look at this dynamic region. Latin America …

Forget the carrier option: an engineer’s response

Nic Stuart’s piece, ‘Forget the carrier option’, makes a large and important judgment: that politics and defence funding won’t allow the option of deploying F-35Bs on Australia’s LHDs. But in making that case Nic repeats …

Cyber wrap

Well done (or commiserations) to those diligent souls that have yet to decamp for the summer break. To help soften the blow, here’s the last cyber wrap for the year from the ICPC. Last week …

The future littoral combat ship

In one of his last major decisions in office, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has decided to continue production of the two Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) designs. The US Navy had been directed to …

Strike from the air: a measured strategy

Below is an extract from ASPI’s publication Strike from the air: the first 100 days of the campaign against ISIL released today. Most assessments of the US-led military operation in Iraq have criticised the limited …

Strike from the air: the campaign in 2015

Below is an extract from ASPI’s publication released today, Strike from the air: the first 100 days of the campaign against ISIL. It’s apparent that the campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL is going to …

Strike from the air: ISIL’s reach

Below is an extract from ASPI’s newly released publication Strike from the air: the first 100 days of the campaign against ISIL. There’s no doubt that the rapid rise of ISIL in Syria and especially Iraq …

Defining the capability issue

Defence is big on definitions. If you can define something, you have a better chance of being able to manage it appropriately. So much of the documentation produced by Defence has pages dedicated to the …

The Oz taxi test in the South Pacific

To see how deeply Australia reaches into the South Pacific, try the taxi test. Hop into a taxi anywhere in the Islands and negotiate to pay the fare in Australian dollars. My random survey over …

ASPI suggests

This week’s top story has been the detailed report dissecting the CIA’s justification of its ‘enhanced interrogation’ program. For a quick rundown, see this New York Times piece summarising the report’s findings on the major …