When Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi used the term ‘pull factor’ in a recent interview, she was reprising an expression coined four decades ago to describe how the promise of resettlement was the reason for …
The Japanese government has released a draft version of the country’s updated cyber strategy, due for release in June 2015 (PDF – Japanese only). The strategy, presented at a cyber security taskforce meeting on Monday …
The rumour doing the rounds last year was that the Prime Minister had contemplated a unilateral deployment of a battalion of Australian soldiers to Ukraine to secure the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, …
To properly understand last week’s announcement from the government about the beleaguered Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) project, some background is needed. Back in June 2014, the government received the independent ‘White–Winter report’ into the project. …
A recently released Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade evaluation details some successes but also highlights shortcomings in Australia’s humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis. While Australia was an early-responder to events in Syria, overall …
Sea State Last week, TKMS opened its dockyards in Kiel to visiting Australian defence writers to discuss its submarine and surface fleet operations. The Germans have displayed a transparency in the competitive evaluation process that …
The adjectives applied by the government to describe the forthcoming Defence White Paper and its accompanying plan for the ADF include ‘fully costed’, ‘externally assured’, ‘achievable’, ‘affordable’, ‘credible’, ‘realistic’, ‘properly funded’ and ‘enduring’. This is …
I’ve recently discussed two trends in military technology. The week before lasts’ post on the 1990s non-revolution in military affairs argued that low-tech adversaries simply make themselves scarce when faced with a technologically superior foe. …
In a piece in last Monday’s Australian we discussed the case of three Australians suspected of fighting with terrorist groups in Syria who are negotiating with the government to leave the war zone and return …
The illegal harvesting and smuggling of the rare and valuable Siamese Rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis) across the Thai-Cambodian border is an issue that’s landed on ASEAN member states’ desks yet again. On 7 May, the Environmental …
Tony Abbott wants a Japanese submarine. To repeat: Australia’s Prime Minister really wants a Japanese boat. If Australia hadn’t embarked on a ‘competitive evaluation process’ pitting Japan against France and Germany, this hack would argue …
Headlining today’s wrap-up are three must-read pieces on Australia’s strategic choices and China. In the first, Bonnie Glaser (who’s visiting Australia at the moment) argues that ‘Australia should join the US to implement a cost imposition strategy …
On Wednesday CNN released exclusive footage taken aboard a US Navy P-8 that may have flown within the claimed 12nm of territorial airspace of three of the islands in the South China Sea undergoing Chinese reclamation …
It was widely expected that President Joko Widodo would present far more diplomatic problems for Australia, than did his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Over the past eight months it has become apparent just how much more …
Reform programs come and go in the Australian Defence establishment. Sometimes they fulfil their intent; sometimes they don’t. The extent to which the changes sought by the First Principles Review occur will depend on the …
Last Friday, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2015 that included a reference to a recent issue: China’s potential participation in 2016 Rim of the …
The failings of the counter-strategies, raised in William Choong’s provocative piece on China’s successful South China Sea strategy, have been evident for quite some time but have been glossed over. The conventional approach to addressing …
The Beat Organised Crime in Australia 2015 The Australian Crime Commission have published their biennial Organised Crime in Australia report. In this year’s report, the ACC mentions the connection between terrorism and organised crime and …
ISIS’ territorial hold represents a different kind of challenge from the amorphous decentralised threat presented by al Qaeda a decade ago. ISIS is vulnerable to an armed invasion of Iraq/Syria by a multinational coalition aiming …
Last week German Bundestag internal servers fell victim to an external hacking attempt. The government is keeping details close to its chest, but a spokesperson for the German Lower House confirmed that the attack had …