The Chilcot report underlines two crucial truths that further undermine the Iraq War legacies of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. The first is that the invasion was unnecessary, precisely because the US-led …
To no one’s surprise, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has upheld all the key arguments of the Philippines in its case against China on the application of the United Nations Convention …
The People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already stated that the international Tribunal’s award in The Philippines v. China case is null and void and has no binding force. That’s no great …
Last Wednesday the European Parliament approved the new European Union Network and Information Security directive, which applies common cybersecurity and reporting obligations for operators of essential services, such as energy, transport, health finance and water …
The volume of traffic travelling through Australia’s maritime approaches—along with a diversifying threat environment—is putting ever-increasing strain on border security assets. In the coming years, Maritime Border Command will come under pressure to capture, filter, …
As befits most public documents issued at international gatherings, the communique released at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s summit in Warsaw was both long and tedious, covering every conceivable global security threat …
The ruling delivered overnight by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is one that will deeply discomfort Beijing. Since the Philippines put its …
I haven’t read the dozen-odd volumes of the full Chilcot Report, but I can recommend the 150-odd page Executive Summary. It’s a valuable document and a welcome affirmation, in troubled times, of the principles of …
Sea State With Rim of the Pacific 2016 (Exercise RIMPAC) in full swing, Russia has stationed a spy ship off the coast of Hawaii to monitor proceedings. According to a US Pacific Fleet spokesman, the …
Last week, Sir John Chilcot’s review revealed that in 2003 the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, committed his country to the US-led invasion of Iraq based on ‘flawed intelligence and assessments’. After the report’s …
While ISIS is clearly a complex thorn in the side of the Turkish government, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a broad range of interconnected problems related to Syria that are destabilising the nation’s security …
Recent reporting that the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 might be soon called off got me thinking about the methodology of search. For my sins, I spent time in operations research in my …
The prospect of huge financial and currency collapses inevitably dominated initial concerns over Britain’s decision to leave the EU. But greater stability now seems likely as world markets adjust to the changed circumstances. More worrying …
A major international conference on the Pacific Islands was held recently by the Centre for Pacific Island Countries Studies in Guangzhou, the capital city of China’s Guangdong province. The conference, devoted solely to a discussion …
Seven years, 12 volumes of evidence, findings, and conclusions, and one executive summary later, the Report of the Iraq Inquiry, more commonly referred to as the Chilcot Report (after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot), is …
Australia does baling wire diplomacy—practical, pragmatic and proudly makeshift. Oz rural tradition decrees a bloke with baling wire can fix a gate or fence or shed or even a tractor. Baling wire diplomacy is adequate …
Welcome back to another week of ASPI suggests, where we’ll kick off with a quick look at some of the debate around FBI chief James Comey’s announcement on Tuesday that the Bureau won’t be recommending …
This election season has been marked by frequent charges of dishonesty. During Britain’s ‘Brexit’ debate, each side charged the other with distorting the truth, though the speed with which the ‘Leave’ camp has been disowning …
President Obama, flanked by his Secretary of Defense—Ashton Carter—and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr.—announced at the White House on Wednesday 6 July his latest—and last—troop adjustment for Afghanistan. …
The first question Chinese officials ask Americans when they come to Beijing these days has little to do with economic policy, or the South China Sea, or the particulars of global instability. They focus on …