China has once again raised its defence spending by a double digit percentage. There’s nothing new about that; the average rate of growth since 2002 has been 14.6% according to official figures. Usually, the annual …
This week, Chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (pictured above), made a bold speech that accused the CIA of hacking into a stand-alone network used for an investigation into the agency’s …
Kym Bergmann gives an interesting potted history of Crimea up until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. However, it’s important not to neglect what happened since then. In the case of Ukraine, in exchange for …
When the Australian National Audit Office’s audit report on the Air Warfare Destroyer program was released last week, I was told by a veteran journo that it was a bit of a disappointment to his …
The Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, recently addressed the National Security Institute (PDF). He gave a tour de force tour d’horizon, focused on the development of the 2015 Defence White Paper (DWP). He explained …
As Sunday’s referendum in Crimea approaches, there seems little doubt that the peninsula’s majority Russian-speaking population will vote for a return to rule by Moscow instead of Kiev. However, it seems unlikely that the result …
The commercial woes of Qantas have blanketed the airwaves and newspapers of late, but the government’s intent to change the Qantas Sale Act to allow more foreign ownership of the airline seems unlikely to be …
The recently released US Quadrennial Defense Review 2014 (PDF) describes a difficult set of challenges for the United States military—challenges that have big implications for our alliance. The headlines have focussed on overall cuts to …
Russia has tightened its physical grip on Crimea this week, though offensive operations have largely been taking place online. Apart from the anticipated DDoS attacks, analysts from security firm BAE have disclosed the nature of …
In late February, I attended the Ditchley Park conference on power rivalries in Asia. A sub-theme of the conference was to explore whether the region was being drawn into an arms race. Like all good …
Last week, we attended a workshop on Information and Cyber Warfare, organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. Bringing together speakers from a range of countries and backgrounds, it discussed …
The United States has long been the leader of global innovation, but a recent report (PDF) by the National Science Board (the advisory board to the President on research in science and engineering) suggests that …
Today marks the third anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that caused widespread damage, including the meltdown of three of the six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power …
Over the past few years I’ve developed arguments for three linked but separate propositions about relations between the US and China, and what Australia should do about them. First, America faces a serious challenge to …
Minister for Defence Senator David Johnston took the opportunity to launch a special report from The Sir Richard Williams Foundation, Protecting Australia with UAS (unmanned aerial systems), at the Australian Defence Magazine Congress earlier this …
It’s a Canberra Day public holiday so we’ll be publishing a limited number of posts today. But we’ll be back tomorrow with our usual program of analysis, stats and graphs for your reading pleasure. The …
Headlining today is the news that the code of conduct on intelligence activities (also called a ‘code of ethics’) between Australia and Indonesia hasn’t shown much progress of late. The Indonesian President proposed the CoC last year (first …
Yesterday I appeared in front of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts and Audit. It’s not my usual haunt, but they were holding a public hearing into the Australian National Audit Office’s Audit Report …
Back in 1944, the Soviet armies executed a swift strategic campaign aimed at defeating the Nazi occupation forces and liberating Ukraine. Seventy years on, Ukraine is facing another major strategic standoff, this time between Russia, …
Canberra is offering Fiji a promotion in the hierarchy of Australian interests in the South Pacific. Ranking how Australia sees the South Pacific gives some regional context for the bilateral play as Canberra tries to …