Am I the only one to have noticed that for the 14 years that Australia was involved in Afghanistan and the 11 years in Iraq, every visit by a politician is a ‘surprise’? Every single …
Nothing so clearly signals Australia’s involvement in a more strategically competitive Asia as the writings of Australia’s leading strategic academics. In quieter times, our academics focused on the meaning of self-reliance, or the durability of …
Originally published 26 June 2014. (We’ll be publishing new material on Monday 5 January) China continues to try changing the status quo in the South China Sea (SCS) through bullying its smaller neighbours and creating …
Originally posted 17 April 2014. In its first few months in office, a combination of rookie errors and challenging circumstances gave the Abbott government’s international policy a shaky start. The PM’s declaration that Japan was …
Originally published 20 October 2014. Here’s Canberra lore—or three rules of an Unholy Trinity—explaining how politicians operate. When nothing makes sense, rely on the Trinity pulsing beneath the surface of party, parliament and government: It’s …
Originally published 13 February 2014. While high profile Defence projects like the Joint Strike Fighter and future submarine have received plenty of coverage, much less has been written about LAND 400—a proposed $10 billion purchase …
Originally published 27 May 2014 It was refreshing to see some positive news emerging from the United Nations recently, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointing the first-ever female force commander of a UN peacekeeping mission. Major-General …
Originally published 9 September 2014. In recent weeks, three of my colleagues have written about the appropriate balance that we should attempt to strike between national security and civil liberties. Toby Feakin began the series …
Thanks for joining us in 2014! The Strategist will be taking a break from today until 4 January. The editorial team—Rod, Natalie, Kristy and David—would like to thank all of the readers who’ve helped establish …
With the end (of the year) nigh, it’s time once again to have a look at what’s been making Strategist readers click. The 2013 top ten showed that our readership was most interested in submarines, …
Humorists often say that hindsight is 20/20 vision. Not so. Historians will tell you that we often don’t see things clearly even in the rear-view mirror. As ASPI begins its shutdown for the Christmas–New Year …
The Australia–China relationship has seen impressive positive momentum over the last year. In April 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott led a well-received trade mission to Beijing, and President Xi Jinping reciprocated with a visit to …
Whether carried out by government authorities or non-state armed actors, seizing and holding one’s adversaries continues to be an innate and expected feature of war. In 2013 alone, the International Committee of the Red Cross …
Last week’s horrific terrorist attack at a military-funded school in Peshawar in the northwest of Pakistan which killed 148 civilians, including 132 children, is without any doubt the worst in the country’s history, judged by …
North Korea has delivered a major blow to freedom of expression in the US and emboldened Internet hackers everywhere by successfully coercing Sony Pictures into axing the release of its new film, The Interview. The …
In 2014, China arrived as the economic Number One and Japan arrived as a ‘normal’ security player in Asia. China confronts the many meanings and huge character test of being the biggest. Japan has just …
We’re kicking off the last round-up for 2014 with peek into the new year: our colleagues at CSIS have predicted five events that will shape Southeast Asia in 2015 including a ruling on the Philippines’ South China …
Police reporting—a catalogue of the worst crime, murders and personal tragedies occupying our underworld—was big in the 1980s. So I knew I was being given a break when told I’d be spending a couple of …
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague is currently examining China’s South China Sea claims in a case brought by the Philippines. While China isn’t expected to take part in the case—indeed, it …
A week after a serious military–police clash in Port Moresby went largely unreported in Australia, prompting some commentators to warn that PNG mightn’t always muddle-through potential crises, it’s reassuring that four of our high-profile ministers …