In February 2015 the then-Abbott Government initiated the selection of an international partner for Australia’s future submarine program by inviting French, German and Japanese interests to participate in a Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP). Swedish interests …
According to the newspapers, the government’s Competitive Evaluation Process (CEP) for the Collins replacement yielded bids of between $10 and $12 billion for eight boats, with the price for 12 boats below $15 billion. Delighted …
Sea State The US Navy is facing a shortage of aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific and Middle East as it attempts to scale back the duration of carrier deployments. Carrier deployments have grown over …
Dr Martin Parkinson will soon begin his role as the new Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, succeeding Michael Thawley. Both are highly capable individuals and both have suffered from the lottery of Australian Public …
Australian infrastructure, along with the threat of natural or manmade disasters, is particularly complex, making infrastructure failures inevitable. That’s why I read with interest Paul Barnes’ post on improving the disaster resilience of critical infrastructure in …
Douglas Fry’s recent Strategist contribution, ‘Australian police require proactive approach to shooter threat’, illustrates the challenge of covering complex issues in 800 words. I applaud Douglas for strongly supporting the introduction of active shooting training …
Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test on 6 January. Technically, we know comparatively little about the device that it tested. In terms of seismic signature the blast seems to have been from a bomb about …
‘Monetary policy is 98 per cent talk and 2 per cent action.’ – Ben Bernanke So even central banking—that combination of the dismal science and monetary madness—is virtually voodoo, driven most of the time by smoke …
Originally published 4 November 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters. Vladimir Putin once said that he knew where Australia was but never thought about it. Australian leaders too have seldom had reason to think about post-Soviet …
Originally published 17 July 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi and Amelia Long. ISIS appears to be exerting a steadily growing pull in Indonesia, with its appeal now reaching beyond existing extremist groups. It’s successfully presenting …
Originally published 28 July 2015. Picked by David Lang. In a recent post, I argued that the western strategy against ISIS is failing and described the group as a state-like entity destabilising the greater Middle …
Originally published 23 June 2015. Picked by Amelia Long. The United Nations appears to have seized on its 70th anniversary this year to undertake a series of high-level reviews (previously noted here). Long awaited among …
Originally published 30 September 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters. Early on the morning of 1 October 1965, seven detachments of troops drove through the quiet streets of Jakarta, bound for the homes of the most …
Originally published 5 May 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi. Recent reports demonstrate that the online environment is playing an ongoing role in the radicalisation of those joining jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Oliver Bridgeman’s …
Originally published 27 April 2015. Picked by David Lang. Malcolm Fraser’s greatest contribution to foreign policy was the new consensus on Asia that he embraced, fostered and cemented. Fraser’s Asia policy drew large elements of …
Originally published 1 July 2015. Picked by Amelia Long. Below is an extract from ASPI’s publication Gen Y jihadists: preventing radicalisation in Australia, launched 30 June 2015. In 2014, the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium …
Originally published 11 September 2015. Picked by Patrick Walters and Natalie Sambhi. ‘Things are seldom what they seem’—so wrote the librettist W.S. Gilbert in HMS Pinafore. The current refugee crisis in Europe looks like a …
Originally published 18 August 2015. Picked by Natalie Sambhi. Warfare is changing, and not just in the most obvious and visible ways. Yes, there are new technologies, newly assertive foes, and new ideologies. But to …
Thanks for joining us for a big 2015! The editorial team would like to thank all of the readers who’ve helped establish our blog as an informed source of opinion and analysis on defence and …
Originally published 27 January 2015. Picked by David Lang. No Australian minister has made a full-blooded speech on nuclear deterrence for many a long year—not since the early 1990s, I suspect. In truth, that’s not …
