Welcome back for the second 2015 round-up of new reports and recommended links. Not to be outdone by the Army, the US Navy is now looking at Iron Man suits aka military exoskeletons (like the …
CSIS’s release of its recent report Pivot 2.0—intended to help nurture a bipartisan consensus in Washington in favour of the policy—shows the topic of the ‘rebalance’ is still a live one in US foreign and …
The Ebola crisis evoked the worst fears and clichés about Africa. Forget the vast distances between Monrovia and Asmara or Freetown and Johannesburg. Ignore the many differences between the three countries fighting the outbreak and …
2015 is set to be a historic year for Internet governance. If all goes to plan in nine months a fresh, accountable, and independent ICANN will be born. On 30 September 2015, what should be …
Bad news for the social media team at US Central Command (CENTCOM) this week: on Monday their Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked by Islamic State (IS) sympathisers. The hackers replaced the banner and user …
Young strategists are often in the market for book recommendations. Though I’m not particularly inclined to write reviews, I’d strongly recommend Robert Haddick’s Fire on the Water: China, America and the future of the Pacific …
In 1989, when reflecting upon leadership strategies in a new information age, Dudley Lynch and Paul Kordis drew from typified animal behaviour to develop a new model of management. You don’t need to be a …
This summer has already seen its fair share of fires in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia, together with the inevitable debate on whether this is climate change in action. Indeed, it …
Beyond acknowledging the existence of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Rodger Shanahan’s views on Iran and my own differ greatly. At the core of our disagreement is how Iran might employ its nascent nuclear capability. I’m …
It’s traditionally said that ‘the sea commands the land’. But the relationship between the maritime and terrestrial domains is more complex than that suggests. Episodes like the attack against HMS Glamorgan in the closing stages …
Wedged between the bushfires in South Australia and the announcement of an early election in Queensland has been the Prime Minister’s ‘surprise visit’ to the Middle East. Amongst the media’s indignation at not being permitted …
The contestants are on stage for the annual Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest in international affairs. The previous column announced the minor prizes: the OOPS (I wish I hadn’t…) …
Welcome back for 2015! Of the news items and commentary surrounding this week’s Charlie Hebdo shooting, consider reading these thoughts by The New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch on which is mightier: the pen or the gun. …
John Blaxland concludes his important book, The Australian Army from Whitlam to Howard, by setting out key future challenges for the Army: ‘… reinvest in skills to enable closer and more effective engagement in Australia’s …
I’ve read with interest Andy Nikolic’s two posts in October and January about the need to address the threat posed by an Iranian nuclear capability. In October he wrote that ‘the threat of a nuclear-armed …
The House of Representatives election in Japan on 14 December resulted in a comfortable victory for the incumbent coalition government parties. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the New Komeito party won, in aggregate, more …
I’m grateful to Kym Bergmann for his recent post on the Prime Minister’s surprise visit to Iraq during bushfire season here in Australia. For one thing, Kym puts on the agenda the whole issue of …
Happy New Year from Team ICPC! Unfortunately last year’s mess that was the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainments has followed us into 2015 and tensions continue to rise between the United States and North Korea. …
At the time of the 1993 federal election I was shirt-fronted by an ardent South Australian conservationist appalled at bipartisan political support for defence spending when there was, apparently, an enormous feral cat problem attriting …
History is replete with strategic incidents that were unforeseen but set in motion events that shaped the strategic landscape for decades. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one such event, which foreshadowed …