This week in The Beat – more problems in Australia’s ‘ice’ epidemic, big money in European organised crime and news for Serial fans. And this week in Counterterrorism Scan, Australian foreign fighters, counterterror in the Asia-Pacific …
Ahron Shapiro’s critique eloquently expresses the strongest arguments against the P5+1 interim deal. In many ways this debate is ‘the principle versus the technical’. It’s regrettable that in 2015 the discussion is about how many …
Last September the terrorism advisory was raised by Prime Minister Tony Abbott from medium to high. We’d been stuck at a medium level alert for thirteen years. The Australian government communicates with the public in …
In between steaming bowls of organic steel-cut oats and workouts deploying the one-legged Romanian deadlift, supple Bob Carr’s Diary of a Foreign Minister heaps praise on Hillary Clinton, ‘a world-historical figure’ for her energy, sharpness …
If the recent Iranian nuclear framework deal progresses into an actual signed agreement, it would legitimise Iran as a nuclear weapons threshold state by allowing it to maintain a vast nuclear infrastructure. The finer points …
Below a welter of cliché and bamboozling modern management mumbo jumbo in the First Principles Review of Defence, there lurks much sound advice. The government has bought it all except for an unconvincing recommendation about …
Laos People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) has become a regionally significant hub for transnational organised crime syndicates. Faced with serious border security challenges brought on by its shared borders, endemic corruption and central location in Southeast …
Sea State Last Thursday, the US Navy’s Naval Intelligence Office released an unclassified report on the Chinese Navy (PLAN), the first in six years. The report provides the public with a wider analysis of issues …
In 2003, a ‘perfect storm’ of intersecting developments saw Tehran caught with one hand in the nuclear weapon cookie jar (secretly enriching uranium), despite having joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and given assurances that it …
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to announce that she’s in the race to become President of the United States in 2016. In her time as Secretary of State from 2008 to 2013, Clinton …
On Thursday 2 April, the political framework for a final comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme was finally agreed to. In anticipation of potential future sanctions relief, China took a number of immediate steps to …
On 11 September 1980, Malcolm Fraser stood in the House of Representatives to describe the four pillars of Australian foreign policy. The Prime Minister’s statement listed the ‘four essential components of our foreign policy’ in …
For the best reading picks, podcasts and news in international security and defence, here’s ASPI Suggests. Kicking off today is the Iran nuclear deal; read Martin Skold’s piece on strategy blog The Bridge that grapples with the tension between …
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reads as a remarkable document. (Here’s a useful fact sheet.) If fully implemented, it’ll prove an historic triumph of diplomacy—one that significantly reduces the likelihood of an Iranian …
Smiling faces beam from the cover of Creating One Defence. These happy folks, with photos balanced for gender and Service, are pleased that Defence business processes have had their 36th substantive review since 1973. They …
This week in The Beat, a national ‘ice’ task force, a visit to wildlife crime’s chamber of horrors,’ AFL and illicit drug use, and a potentially game-changing verdict for film and television piracy. National ‘ice’ task …
‘We’re looking for a bigger, heavier vehicle to provide extra protection.’ That was Major General Paul McLachlan head of DMO’s Land Systems Division speaking for the benefit of the general public at the release of …
Let’s not speak of them when accountability or lack of it is everywhere else, but where the Westminster system suggests it should be! The First Principles Review (FPR) is another review which heralds ‘transformational change’ …
It’s good to see that the ‘Option J’ paper Ben Schreer and I wrote is generating responses. Hugh White and Sam Bateman raise concerns about a closer relationship with Japan: both of them argue that …
This week’s Sea State looks at some of the key ideas that emerged from ASPI’s Future Surface Fleet conference, held last week in Canberra. The two-day event brought together a high-powered line-up of local and …