Australia is leaving the Afghanistan war well before the war is over. This is one of the Vietnam echoes in our experience of Afghanistan. Both were coalition wars fought by Australia with a central focus …
There’s been a lot of commentary this week on Australia–Indonesia relations. For a seasoned Indonesian perspective, watch this Fairfax interview published today with Lieutenant General (rtd) Agus Widjojo, regarded as one of the post-Suharto era’s more …
Students of regional security architecture will now have another acronym to add to their lexicon. Last Friday the 20 member states of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), at its annual meeting …
An ASPI report published this morning sets out a plan to help deliver a sustainable solution for the future of Bougainville. A decade after the successful peacekeeping mission, and a year and a half before …
Last week in The Strategist Benjamin Schreer offered a stark view of the forces shaping Indonesia’s future strategic choices. Schreer argues that Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea might (or will?) eventually encroach …
Discussion of a cyberattack of such gravity to be considered a new Pearl Harbor or even a 9/11 moment is now almost clichéd. For example, in early 2011, then CIA chief Leon Panetta warned the …
Hugh White got it wrong last week. He erroneously asserted that the two amphibious Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) and three Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) ships currently being built for the Navy are destined for a …
Last week, the furore over spying allegations revealed in reports leaked by Edward Snowden that rocked Europe reached Australia. On Thursday 31 October, Fairfax papers reported that Australia had been spying on its neighbour from …
The arcane world of electronic surveillance is suddenly prominent. Based on Edward Snowden’s comments, the media holds that America dramatically expanded electronic surveillance after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to include Angela Merkel, 35 other foreign …
A lively debate has emerged on Australia’s $8 billion acquisition of three Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs*). Some see the possibility that the new government in Canberra might add another AWD to this procurement order—though …
The idea that China’s one-party state will eventually implode under the strains of authoritarianism’s inherent weaknesses might seem both reassuring and obvious. Such an eventuality, the thinking goes, would be the inevitable upshot of China’s …
I’ve just got back from the Korber Foundation’s 154th Bergedorf roundtable in Jakarta. They set me the easy task of describing Asia’s five most significant military developments, along with their drivers and the confidence-building measures …
Anthony Bergin and Anthony Press’ recent post ‘Defence and Climate Change‘ is right on the money. Defence needs to do more than it’s already doing to prepare the ADF to face the challenges of a warming planet. …
As with Vietnam, the Australian military will leave Afghanistan believing it won its bit of the war, even if the Afghanistan war is eventually judged a disaster. This is the limited right of small alliance …
Further revelations of US intelligence activity, including tapping of friendly world leaders phones, has put Washington’s intelligence community on the defensive. The Economist writes: On October 29th, realising that the political mood in Washington was, …
Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have provided manna from heaven for the army of journalists and editors besotted by spy stories. Sensational disclosures of government secrets and spying activities are splashed all over the media …
A recent media report that the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper has been removed from DFAT’s website is correct. The White Paper now resides at Australia’s web archive, known as PANDORA, perhaps in …
This week, I participated in the 39th meeting of the Australian Member Committee of the Council for Security Co-operation in the Asia-Pacific (Aus-CSCAP) in Darwin. This year’s theme was the US ‘rebalance’ and Southeast Asia, with …
This week the fallout from the leak of classified NSA documents continued, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her outrage at the revelation the US had been tapping her phone for up to ten years, …
If you read some of the media coverage of this week’s meeting between US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and New Zealand Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman, you might have thought that the two countries have just …