Happy International Women’s Day from The Strategist team! The Center for New American Security last week hosted a conference on ‘Women and Leadership in International Security’ (recap here), where USAF Secretary Deborah James announced a …
In my previous post on the US Long Range Strike–Bomber (LRS-B), I promised to return to the likely cost-effectiveness of the future system. But first I’m going to back-track to examine the possible costs in …
Why is ASPI starting a border security program? Why is border security important to an island country with no land borders? Where and what is a border in a globalised world? In the past a …
This piece was drawn from the second part of a presentation to the 2015 Chief of Air Force Symposium, the theme of which was ‘Integrating Air Power.’ At last year’s Air Power Conference in Canberra I spoke …
This week’s update includes CCTV for Australian schools, British extremism, China’s CT laws, the FBI’s online fight against IS, white supremacy, and inside the mind of a terrorist. Australian schools categorised as being at risk …
December 2014 saw the Australian Army wind down its longest ever warlike commitment—after 13 years of continuous operations, Australian troops ceased combat operations in Afghanistan. Now for the first time in over a decade the …
On The Beat this week: Europol’s latest organised crime report, cybercrime vs drug trafficking, the National Identity Security Strategy, security funding for Australian schools and the case against metadata retention. Europol and tomorrow’s organised crime …
From the time it came into being in 1947, the United States Air Force has had a state-of-the-art long-range bomber in its inventory. The first was the extraordinary B-36 Peacemaker (see photo)—the name intending to …
The cyber element has been a staple of global threat assessments for quite some time. Last week’s Worldwide Threat Assessment delivered by US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was no exception. Testifying at the …
This piece was drawn from the first part of a presentation to the 2015 Chief of Air Force Symposium, the theme of which was ‘Integrating Air Power.’ Who could be so silly as not to want …
Ten years have passed since the World Summit on the Information Society—better known as WSIS—agreed on a working definition of the concept of ‘Internet governance’. While a number of delicate political agreements were reached at …
The recent ministerial announcement that government had given first pass approval and released an open request for tender for phase 2 of Project LAND 400 represents much more than a decision ‘to replace Army’s thousand …
In this week’s update, New Zealand joins the coalition against IS, anti-IS foreign fighters suffer a casualty, Australia’s Chief of Army gets ready to retire, a US special operations task force in the Philippines deactivates, US …
Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) certainly seem to be the flavour of the day. Media reports suggest the RAAF is seeking eight MQ-9 Reaper aircraft at a total cost of around $300m. And Australia will …
This week reviews all the news from the Avalon international Airshow and Biennale IDEX events, the latest on drones, fifth-generation fighters, China’s military capability, and a debate on the US Long Range Strike-Bomber. The Avalon …
In a recent post I reviewed some of the possible future modifications to the ADF’s force structure. Today I want to look at the particular case of future surface combatants. As I’ve said before, the …
Recently-released Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) research, Findings from the DUMA program: Impact of reduced methamphetamine supply on consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol, casts further doubts over the effectiveness of Australian border-enforcement agencies’ use …
In a recent blog post my colleague Karl Claxton took the opportunity to frame the issues around the Defence Minister Kevin Andrew’s recent Land 400 announcement. Sadly, Karl echoes an old complaint: Most commentators have …
Submarines continue to make headlines across Australia, with the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey encouraging Australia to make a quick decision about a replacement for the Collins-class submarines. In …
To write of bureaucratic culture is to venture into fog and quicksand and risk returning with mud and mush. Yet in understanding a power town like Canberra, culture offers answers not delivered by legal tomes …