After years on the sidelines, Russia is back at the center of the Middle East geostrategic game. Against the background of an equivocal United States policy, Russia’s calculated intervention in the Syrian civil war is …
The first phase of Australian submarine activity began immediately after Federation, when there was considerable interest in the brand new technology of submersibles. Various schemes were discussed to make use of the new type for …
Britain joined what became the European Union in 1973. This year, on 23 June, it will hold a referendum on whether to leave. Should it? Current polls show a closely divided electorate. Prime Minister David …
Sea State The Navy Times has published an article claiming that the White House prevented US commanders from criticising China ahead of a meeting between President Obama and President Xi at last month’s Nuclear Security …
Editor’s note: The Strategist has invited all three SEA 1000 contenders to explain their approach to meeting Australia’s future submarine requirement. The first post in this two-part series explored several key questions pertaining to Japan’s …
Last week we wrote about the transition from the Collins class to the future submarine. Among other things, we pointed out that there’s a tight relationship between the delivery tempo, the maintenance cycle of the …
Editor’s note: The Strategist has invited all three SEA 1000 contenders to explain their approach to meeting Australia’s future submarine requirement. At the end of November last year, Japan submitted to the Australian government its …
Canberra is where strategy and politics meet. Always to confer; occasionally to collide. Ever seeking conclusion—ever settling for compromise. In the politics and strategy games, cooperation and clash are constant companions. And Canberra is where …
Welcome back for another week, this time as ASPI wraps up what has been an action-packed and star-studded program at our Defence White Paper conference. If you haven’t been streaming online or following the conversation …
Australia’s Defence White Paper comes at a challenging time in world politics. When I assumed the Indonesian Presidency in 2004, globalisation was the issue of the day—free trade, economic integration, emerging economies, global financial crisis, …
Editor’s note: The Strategist has invited all three SEA 1000 contenders to explain their approach to meeting Australia’s future submarine requirement. A common misunderstanding about the conventionally powered Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A is that is …
When a few young individuals started to leave Belgium in 2011 in order to wage jihad in Syria there was no sense of alarm. Young radicals had departed before—for Afghanistan, Chechnya or Somalia. The security …
With a war of words akin to the build-up to a heavyweight boxing match, the highly anticipated courtroom battle between Apple and the FBI was called off, leaving fight fans without a clear cut understanding …
The Beat Police body cams: the problem of perspective Police body cameras have become a hot topic since the fatal 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in the US. Australia has been caught in the …
In February, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on the National Diet to amend Article 9 of the country’s constitution, which renounces war as a means of settling disputes. Drafted by the United States after …
Apart from the pictures of our Antarctic icebreaker Aurora Australis having run aground near Mawson Station, Antarctica’s been out of the news in the last few months. But there’s been some interesting Antarctic developments. Our …
The 2016 Defence White Paper (DWP) announced that the Future Submarine will be delivered under a ‘rolling acquisition program’. Initially we assumed this meant that submarines would be produced continuously under the same sort of …
The release of the Panama Papers this week has set a new record for the largest volume of data that has ever been leaked. The 2.6 terabytes of data, consisting of 11.5 million documents previous …
Soft power is essential to any nation wishing to influence others. A term coined by Harvard professor, Joseph Nye, it’s an alternative to the traditional diplomatic theory of ‘carrot or stick’ (economic and military power). …
It’s astonishing to see the conservative inheritors of Churchill’s mantle clamouring to escape the European Union. It‘s even more astonishing to see the looming destruction of a grand alliance—the purpose of which was to prevent …