Army Chief David Morrison’s robust condemnation of some of his officers’ appalling treatment of women has won him wide praise. Morrison’s YouTube speech (below) was a watershed moment, displaying leadership and clarity that cut through the …
Coming at a time when the US has been increasingly turning the screw on China about its persistent hacking of US computer networks, the revelation that the US government itself has been gathering metadata on …
We’d like to say a big thank you for the response to our survey. We got many useful suggestions and comments, all of which were read with great interest. You might notice a few changes …
ASEAN is ever in crisis or on the verge of calamity. The role of crisis in giving ASEAN a purpose, or even an identity, is part of the abiding mystery of Southeast Asian regionalism. The …
Welcome back for another round of new reports, developments in regional and international security and upcoming events. First for today is a new report by the Center for a New American Security that studies the …
For a while now defence officials and analysts on both sides of the Tasman have been looking for ways to re-energise the Australia-New Zealand relationship. It’s almost as if the two neighbours were becoming too …
I’ve recently started looking at the back catalogue of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s public addresses to see what the Indonesian President has chosen to talk about to an international audience. Since January of this year, he’s made 12 …
I liked Phil Radford’s piece on cyber security and the cloud this morning. In particular, I liked the parallel between cyber security and anti-submarine warfare (ASW), having spent a fair chunk of time in Russell …
Because I’m not prone to ‘all or nothing’ thinking, I’ve never subscribed to the view that Australia can’t advance a sensible agenda for arms control because of our alliance relationship with the United States. But …
When Mr Obama sat down with China’s President Xi Jinping in California this week, it’s a fair bet that the prickliest subject was cyber. American companies being are being ripped off by almost certainly state-backed …
Canada played an unexpectedly large role at this year’s Shangri La dialogue, and in a way that shows the challenges of building closer defence ties in the region. Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay has …
If Australia’s 2009 Defence White Paper was a red rag to China, then the 2013 White Paper looks more like the white flag of surrender. Trust a journalist to thrust that wonderful juxtaposition of colour …
President Obama and the First Lady will travel to Africa later this month, with visits to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa planned. According to the White House, the trip is intended to … reinforce the …
There has been quite a spirited debate (here and here) about the meaning behind the largest ships ever built for the Royal Australian Navy. In thinking about this further, maybe we should return to more …
There’s been a resurgence of interest in recent years among Australian academics in the issue of US extended nuclear assurance to its Asian allies in general and to Australia in particular. I’ve written on this …
Australia, like most nations, is happy to voice support at the UN for the total abolition of nuclear weapons. Even the P5 nuclear powers endorse this “ultimate” goal: in 2000 they famously made an “unequivocal …
The conflicts—some might be better described as spats—between China and a number of European countries might provide as many clues about China’s aspirations and behaviour as anything said in California between Barack Obama and Xi …
It’s the Queen’s birthday public holiday here in Canberra so we’ll be back tomorrow with our usual considered analysis, stats and graphs for your reading pleasure. The Strategist team Image courtesy of Flickr user Commonwealth Secretariat.
Barack Obama and Xi Jinping will meet in California this Friday and Saturday. The extended and comparatively informal meeting has the potential to shape the relationship of the two leaders, and of their countries. It …
Failure to adequately invest in critical infrastructure that provides essential functions and services for our society practically guarantees we’ll see failures of critical systems when they’re put under stress by extreme weather events. The Australian …