ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet Conference kicked off this morning, with major speeches reflecting a range of positions and political debate. Opening the conference, ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings lamented the hardline politics of shipbuilding in …
In this week’s Rapid Fire we update on Boko Haram, Yemen, the Tikrit campaign, US troops in Afghanistan, chemical weapons in Syria, and the ‘Warlord Problem’ in Ukraine. Trouble continues in Nigeria as the presidential …
In this week’s flight path, we cover the Germanwings plane crash, Joint Strike Fighter close air support capability, Australia’s next Chief of Air Force, Russia’s bombers and safety deposit boxes in space. Recent revelations that …
In 1890 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published his influential geostrategic masterpiece, The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783. Mahan’s understanding of naval power and its intimate links to economic security was based on his …
Last week, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo embarked on a weeklong Northeast Asian tour beginning with Tokyo on Monday and then Beijing on Wednesday. Besides pressing the flesh and riding a bullet train, Jokowi’s aims were …
This week’s Sea State will examine some of the more prominent debates to arise from Australia’s Future Submarine Summit, the most recent forum to hold informed discussion on the trajectory of SEA 1000: the largest …
The most remarkable feature of Malcolm Fraser’s lifetime pursuit of Australia’s international interests was his journey from rock-ribbed, alliance-loving realist to green-tinged alliance decrier. Fraser’s eventual rejection of the US alliance as deeply dangerous to …
Ready for the weekend? We’ve got your good reads and podcasts covered. Southeast Asia’s big news this week was the death of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, aged 91. A towering figure in Singapore’s politics and …
Karl Claxton’s recent Strategist post suggests that Operation Pacific Assist to cyclone-damaged Vanuatu could provide an opportunity to ‘reset regional cooperation’. As ‘practical avenues for reviving habits of cooperation’, he suggests that humanitarian assistance and …
Like many capability debates, LAND 400 runs the risk of becoming a multipolar web of false dichotomies and choices. The systems proposed for acquisition under LAND 400 are too large and heavy, and they come with …
There’s a lot of talk about submarines again this week thanks to the SubSummit conference in Adelaide. Perhaps not surprisingly given the venue, much of the focus was on the local versus offshore build aspect. …
This week on The Beat; terrorism financing in Indonesia from Australia, ACC report on ‘ice’ use, cybercrime to cost US$400 billion, witness in Alexander Litvinenko inquiry, and metadata. Indonesian terrorism funding from Australia New reports …
This week in Counterterrorism (CT) Scan, we look at Australian foreign fighters, Jabhat al-Nusra’s quiet rise, the Tunis and Yemen attacks, terror threats in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, how terrorist groups work, Boko Haram and …
Much of the commentary on Malcolm Fraser portrays him as the politician who moved most dramatically from the right to the left of the political spectrum. The man denounced by the left for his role …
The world’s media and international leaders have responded to the passing of Singapore’s former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew by recounting his eventful life and lauding his remarkable achievements. There is no need—or space—to enumerate …
In news that won’t shock anyone, word came this week that China has established extensive offensive hacking units within its military and civilian government set-ups. But it’s the source of these reports that makes …
This week in Rapid Fire we see the end of Australia’s longest war, more on women in combat, arming Ukraine, Yemen’s civil war, Iran’s role in Iraq, the Tikrit offensive, Boko Haram, and children during …
Australia’s border enforcement agencies have a new opportunity to advance a ‘forward of the border’ strategy to disrupt the flow of heroin from Vietnam. On 17 March, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Prime …
Karl Claxton has done an admirable job sustaining logical and informed debate on the future of the Australian Army on The Strategist. His most recent piece, Armour, Army and Australia’s future strategy corrals a number …
In this week’s update, we review the aerial response to Cyclone Pam, drones in Syria and Europe, the potential for space war, Afghanistan’s close air support capability, and miniature air launched decoy jammers. The destruction …
