At the Seoul International Cyberspace Conference last week, I was listening out for the big advances—if there were any—which had occurred since the previous conference in Budapest. (For what the International Cyberspace Conference process is …
Last month, ASPI and the Australian Department of Defence co-chaired the inaugural Northeast Asia Defence and Security Forum in Sydney. It was a wide ranging discussion, with a particular focus on how all parties could …
ASPI is examining how the Commonwealth government could bolster its contribution in the national fight against serious and organised crime. In addition to a proposal to build nation-wide capability, research for this paper has also …
Ask any specialist on Asian security to describe the strategic policies of China’s neighbours and you’re more likely than not to hear the word ‘hedging’ in the reply. As they become increasingly integrated with the …
The Abbott government has promised to write a new Defence White Paper within 18 months, and one of the key challenges it will face is considering the place of Indonesia in Australian defence thinking. As …
Today ASPI released a new report, Cold Calculations: Australia’s Antarctic Challenges, with contributions from a range of Australian experts on Antarctic issues culled from a series of posts here on The Strategist. It’s a timely …
As noted in my previous column on the changes the Abbott government is making to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the wombat tribe has lost ownership of Trade. That’s to say, the National …
This week the bare minimum of sanity has prevailed in Washington, with the GOP blinking at the last minute on the US shutdown. Further government borrowing will be allowed, and those closed parts of the …
Anthony Bergin’s recent post Is Australia a pivotal power? has sparked a lot of responses. Below are the latest submissions. We’re also happy to hear from readers who aren’t named Andrew. It’s only words Andrew Davies In …
With a new government taking charge, the proposal to build a fourth Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) has re-emerged. Unsurprisingly, the loudest voices are those with a vested interest, including shipbuilders and shipyard unions. So far, …
Ramesh Thakur once said that size is an elusive variable. So I commend Anthony Bergin for re-opening the debate about Australia’s middle power status and position on the world stage. As I’ve written elsewhere, the …
Anthony Bergin is surely right when he channels his inner Alexander Downer to make the case that Australia is more (but also, I think, sometimes less) than a middle power in international affairs. Any real …
To look at recent defence white papers you wouldn’t know that Australia’s special forces (SF) had been deeply involved in the 9/11 wars and have suffered half the killed in action losses. Indeed, looking across …
Vietnam’s new foreign policy approach, which some analysts have labelled ‘more friends, fewer enemies’, reflects its precarious position as a bird on the wire caught between China and the United States. In the past few …
Judging by his output, ASPI’s Anthony Bergin likes nothing more than to test ideas in relation to Australia’s strategic positioning. His recent proposition that Australia is not so much a ‘middle power’ but a ‘pivotal …
Prof Paul Dibb’s revisiting of exactly how close we came to nuclear war in 1983 reminded me of my own small role in propelling the world towards nuclear Armageddon at that time. Armed with the …
Recent commentary on US President Barack Obama’s last minute cancellation of his trips to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bali and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Brunei overwhelmingly reflected classical ‘zero-sum’ thinking. …
My former ASPI colleague Carl Ungerer has pointed out that Doc Evatt first used the term ‘middle power’ at the San Francisco conference that established the United Nations in April 1945. In a recent op-ed …
In the wake of the US President’s decision to pull out of any engagements in Asia surrounding the APEC summit in Bali last week, critics of the US rebalance to Asia policy have exploited his …
There’s no underestimating the significance of the first ever ASEAN Regional Forum workshop on cyber security held in China, which I was fortunate enough to be part of. So frequently the accused protagonist in cyberspace, …