The spate of recent decisions on Chinese investment in Australia and the revelations associated with Senator Sam Dastyari stepping down from his shadow ministerial position have been accompanied by a sharp rise in the media’s …
I really can’t agree with John Blaxland’s view regarding what term we should use for Islamic State, for two reasons; it doesn’t really matter what term you use, and the very people that John advocates …
ASPI recently published an anthology of pieces about the ruling by an Arbitral Tribunal established under the UN Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) to deal with the dispute between China and the Philippines in …
There’s a debate going on in the US at the moment that isn’t attracting much commentary here. While it’s a touch arcane, it’s worthy of public discussion. The question is the organisational arrangement for America’s …
Imagine it is 2020. The director of the CIA requests an urgent meeting with the US president. The reason: North Korea has succeeded in making a nuclear bomb small enough to fit inside the tip …
The Chief of Army’s conference was remarkably successful. That’s a truism, because those sorts of events always will be. Gather together a parade of senior officers who’ve known one another for years; all competing to …
At this point in the US presidential campaign, the momentum is with Donald Trump. If the trend continues, he’ll be elected. Outside the US, his serial deceits and appallingly bombastic narcissism are redolent of candidates …
In July 2016, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on his counterterrorism advisers to investigate the mental state of potential ‘lone-wolf’ terrorists. Two months later, Ihsas Khan was charged with a terrorism offence for the allegedly …
Sea State The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program is back in the headlines this week with new footage of the LCS Jackson’s June shock trials. The trials involved detonating a 10,000 pound (4,546 …
A Special Report (PDF) released by ASPI today examines the shifting Asian nuclear order by exploring four case studies—the US–China relationship, the South Asian nuclear dynamic, the North Korean nuclear program and the challenges confronting US extended …
Earlier this year PwC reported it had identified ‘the equivalent of US$250 billion in projects… [which have] been built already, recently started construction or have been agreed on and signed’ related to China’s One Belt …
Janette Lindesay, Professor of Climatology at the ANU, and the CSIRO’s Mark Howden have pointed out that 2015 was the hottest year on record since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Lindesey and Howden note that: …
Next year marks the centennial of the Balfour Declaration, the British statement that paved the way for Israel’s founding in 1948, and for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as the larger …
The ecosystem that is the Canberra public service is wonderfully complicated. Journalists always have problems getting a handle on the public service, not least because of the diversity of its purposes. Then there’s the secrecy …
15 years since 9/11 and stories from the days, months and years that followed continue to leach out into the world. One of the most remarkable to emerge this week was POLITICO Magazine’s oral history …
There’s a growing intimacy between two of Asia’s big naval powers and it’s causing disquiet among regional watchers and maritime policymakers. Russia and China are growing closer in the nautical realm, much to the chagrin …
There are strong indications that Daesh is on the back foot in Iraq and Syria and its focus is increasingly on fanning the flames of sectarian violence amongst a diaspora in other countries, including Australia. …
The Australian Army did pretty well post-INTERFET, gaining two extra battalions and some new tanks and artillery. But today the Army has pretty much taken a back seat to Air Force and Navy in the …
Cybersecurity continues to be a prominent issue in the US election race. An FBI bulletin, uncovered two weeks ago, reveals that the Bureau has been investigating recent hacking attempts on two state election websites. The …
The Beat Pre-crime stoppers Technology consulting group Upturn last month released a report examining the use of predictive policing in the US and its ramifications. (Predictive policing utilises sophisticated computer algorithms to interpret crime data …