The most frightening periods in history have often been interregnums—moments between the death of one king and the rise of the next. Disorder, war, and even disease can flood into the vacuum when, as Antonio …
China is waging a relentless propaganda campaign against its opponents in the South China Sea. Following the Hague arbitral tribunal’s verdict rejecting Beijing’s historical rights within the nine-dash line, China’s publicity managers have raised their …
Hakainde Hichilema, the presidential candidate of the Zambian Opposition, says that international observers have been ‘absolutely useless’ in supporting the democratic process in the Central African country. ‘HH’, as he’s widely referred to, knows better …
Europe is under pressure. Integrating asylum-seekers and other migrants—1.1 million in Germany alone in 2015—into European society poses a major challenge, one that has been complicated by a spike in crimes committed by new arrivals. …
In producing a White Paper next year, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is challenged to define Oz’s challenges and channel some answers. One part of the challenge will be what it asks of …
¡Hola, comrades! This week saw the first commercial flight in over 50 years take-off from the US bound for Cuba, the most significant step toward rapprochement between Washington and Havana since Obama visited back in March. But …
There are plenty of ‘headline issues’ in the Australian national Audit Office’s new report on the Tiger Armed Reconnaissance helicopter. That’s not surprising, given that the government effectively gave up on the aircraft as a …
The war in Colombia is over. But it’s too early to celebrate. The Colombian government and the FARC rebels last week announced that they’d settled a final peace deal that will end 52 years of …
At the recent ‘New Directions in Strategic Thinking’ conference, a common character trait could be found amongst the world-class collection of participants: pessimism. Not only pessimism about the state of the world today, but also …
Recently, Today Extra host Sonia Kruger made headlines of her own stating Australia should close its borders to Muslims to prevent terrorism. As Australian governments and community leaders work to counter terrorism and violent extremism, …
The Beat Gaming body tackles corruption A newly formed video gaming industry body, the eSports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), aims to combat fraud and cheating in competitive video gaming. On Tuesday ESIC integrity commissioner Ian Smith …
As US President Barack Obama’s eight-year term winds down, he has been facing intensifying criticism for failing to stop the carnage in Syria—what many call his ‘worst mistake.’ But the alternatives his critics tout would …
The ‘China choice’ debate has flared up again in recent weeks with the Turnbull government displaying signs of confusion about where we draw the line between defending national security interests and promoting economic relations with …
Kicking off this week, China has invited foreign tech corporations to join its government’s central technical committee. Technical Committee 260, which reports to the Cyberspace Administration of China, is responsible for establishing China’s cyber security …
Most of Europe’s history has been marked by conflict. The American historian Robert Kagan wrote in 2003 that ‘Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus’; but Europe was for centuries home to the …
Today is the golden age of intelligence. It’s a great time to be an intelligence officer. If our intelligence services were for-profit enterprises, investors would want to make long-term investments in them. Business is that …
I read Geoff Slocombe’s recent post about quantum computing with interest and, I’ll admit, a little skepticism. While there’s no doubt that practical quantum computing would represent a significant step forward in computing power, there …
Sea State The Indian Navy was hit by a massive data leak last week after sensitive technical data about its new Scorpene class attack submarines fell into the hands of The Australian. An inside source …
Diversifying choice of fuel supplies can have a real impact on naval operational capacity, in addition to managing the costs sustaining capability. This month there’s been lots of naval talk about alternative fuels when the …
In a week where we’ve looked back at ASPI’s first 15 years it may be useful to contemplate what the next 15 years might look like for the Institute. Will ASPI survive to 2031? Will …