China continues to try changing the status quo in the South China Sea (SCS) through bullying its smaller neighbours and creating more facts on the ground. After moving an oil rig into an area contested …
President Barack Obama’s recent downcast West Point speech and inadequate response to Iraq’s collapse bring to mind an earlier time when, exhausted by conflict, America cut its overseas military commitments only to be drawn into …
It’s a grim picture in this week’s cyber wrap as news of attacks and vulnerabilities pile up. According to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), foreign-state sponsored cyberattacks on Australian targets have surged by 21%, with …
The building of a replacement for Australia’s Collins class submarines will be the country’s most expensive and complex defence project to date. There are a myriad of capability, commercial and industrial issues to be managed: …
In December last year, National Interest listed the world’s five greatest battleships, defined as the most iconic. Definitions matter. Less adventurous but maybe more easily defended, here’s a list of the five greatest metal battleships …
Regional search and rescue (SAR) issues have stolen a lot of international headlines lately. The disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in March, and the subsequent multinational search effort, revealed substantial cracks in the region’s …
Nuclear arms control has always involved two separate efforts: designing arsenals to ensure they are threatening but not destabilising; and enunciating declaratory policy to clarify expectations about when and why nuclear weapons might be used. …
A part of being a foreign-affairs tragic is believing any memoir by a modern US Secretary of State is interesting, no matter how flawed the book or the Secretary. This tragic ranks the autobiographies of …
You know the drill! Here are some new reports, links and other useful defence and security-related things. This week news has been dominated by the activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham aka …
As a military aircraft engineer, I’ve been associated with STOVL aircraft operations for around 30 years, and have worked on the F-35 program. So I’ve followed the current discussions around potential use of F-35B from …
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines is presently engaged in a concerted effort to modernise its military into a force capable of projecting a posture of credible external deterrence. The overarching goal of …
My colleague Mark Thomson despairs over the prospect of the early replacement of Navy’s Anzac frigates on cost-effectiveness grounds. He’s probably right, but I worry instead about the possibility that the capability implications and project …
Here’s a curious fact: for the better part of two decades the ADF has been led by quiet, at times understated leaders, who put a premium on calmness and seldom raise their voices in anger. …
Cyber policy was on the table at the 5th Japan–Australia 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations in Tokyo last week. Building on Tony Abbott’s April commitment to hold a bilateral cyber dialogue, the consultation established that …
Big things are afoot in Tokyo, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government nears a milestone in its attempts to make Japan a more normal country on national defence. Abe wants to allow Japan limited exercise …
Over the last three months in Washington I’ve asked Pentagon and State Department officials and think tank analysts to rate Australia’s contribution to regional security and articulate what more Canberra could do to support the …
Developments in Iraq have sent shock waves around the Middle East, but the ramifications are global. With so many security challenges, and a particular aversion to conflict in Iraq, President Obama is unlikely to commit …
The fifth Australia–Japan Foreign and Defence Ministerial (2+2) Consultations in Japan in early June 2014 led to another significant step forward in the growing strategic relationship between the two countries—the signing of the Defence Science, …
The 2015 Defence White Paper will come with a library of supporting documents, including a new Defence Industry Policy Statement (DIPS). This year is therefore an opportunity finally to develop a sensible defence industry policy: …
A simple question about what China has been doing to its neighbours keeps recurring: How is that smart? The question came up in dozens of conversations at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific …