Washington’s political deadlock and partisan bloodletting has reached the point that a former US diplomat compares the Congressional confirmation hearings for ambassador appointees to a hostage siege in Beirut. The observation is from Christopher Hill, assistant …
Africa Day (25th May) was celebrated across Australia, with numerous events held to mark the occasion over the last two weeks. It’s an opportunity to honour Africa’s diverse cultures and achievements and is a commemoration …
The 1990 classic film Pretty Woman with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts was full of great lines, but the best belonged to veteran actor Ralph Bellamy near the end of the film. Bellamy plays the …
“What belongs to us belongs to us,” Benigno S. Aquino III, President of the Philippines, said in a speech marking the 115th anniversary of the country’s navy. In January of this year the Philippines, rather …
Whenever I talk about leadership to various audiences, I use two concepts as illustrations. The first I thought was my concept of risk management, until I Googled it and discovered that others had thought of …
The United States is doing a pirouette on its pivot. Or, to use preferred Pentagon prose on the pivot, the US is offering more detail about how it is shifting the pieces of military kit …
What a change in threat perception can do: for years, Japan’s strategic establishment discussed the need to readjust the nation’s military posture to meet a changing external security environment, with nothing much coming from it. …
The Pakistani Taliban (the TTP as it is known in Pakistan) has just taken a substantial hit with the death of of Wali-ur-Rehman, the number two of the TTP as a result of an un-manned …
One of the many complications of the US approach to China is the balance that has to be struck between caress and kick; between the language of engagement and estrangement. The Shangri-La speech by the …
In case you missed it, yesterday was the launch of Mark Thomson’s magnus opus for the year, The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence Budget Brief 2013–2014. And the cost of Defence? It’s AUD$69,081,980.82 a day. …
The physical dimensions of cyber security are as important as the virtual ones, but are often overlooked. Australia is actively working towards building its cyber resilience; the ability to anticipate, withstand, and recover from cyberattacks. …
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are about to enjoy their annual week of speechifying and Asian strategic star-gazing, driven by copious amounts of coffee and conversation. Perhaps only in Southeast Asia could two ‘unofficial’ back-to-back conferences …
What a difference a year can make. Twelve months ago, it looked like the government had all but abandoned the ambitious plans set out for the ADF in the 2009 Defence White Paper. More than …
Every year I get to watch Mark Thomson pull off a remarkable feat of ‘extreme analysis’, as he cranks out 260 pages of the annual Cost of Defence report in the couple of weeks after …
In a recent article in Foreign Affairs, Robert Art and Robert Jervis wrote about the late Kenneth Waltz’s unique contribution to the field of international politics. One of the things Waltz brought to his research was an interest …
Like the term Asia-Pacific, the Indo-Pacific is such a large concept that it conceals as much as it conveys. Why is the idea of the Indo-Pacific so powerful that it is a key motif of …
Australia has made many important contributions to the non-proliferation regime over the years, helping draw attention to the dangers inherent in the spread of nuclear weapons. At the international and regional levels, it’s provided diplomatic …
The 2013 Defence White Paper says that: ‘There is no credible risk of Australia’s national interests in the Southern Ocean and the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) being challenged in ways that might require substantial military …
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen some impressive photographs and the naming ceremony of the first of the 27,000 tonne Canberra class landing helicopter docks (LHDs) coming together in the BAE shipyards in Williamstown. …
Tanya Ogilvie-White’s reading of the 2013 Defence White Paper suggests significant changes in the role nuclear weapons play in Australian strategic policy, which give grounds for optimism. Yet all might not be as it seems. …
