Cynics will be tempted to dismiss President Yudhoyono’s appearance at last month’s Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) summit—the first visit by an Indonesian president to Fiji—as a combination of Jakarta’s seeking to neutralise Melanesian agitation …
The decision by Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s cabinet last week to reinterpret Article 9 of the Japanese constitution has been met with mixed reactions in the region. In his address to Australia’s parliament earlier this …
The rapidly-warming strategic relationship between Australia and Japan has drawn considerable attention this week. Some are for it, some are against it. Some see it as a mechanism to reinforce the growth of a responsible …
Bilateral relations between great powers have been shaken by cybersecurity troubles over the last week. US-Germany relations have deteriorated after Germany arrested an employee of its own Federal Intelligence Service, accusing him of spying for …
Army’s Plan Beersheba, currently being implemented, has changed Army’s force structure to provide a wider range of ready, sustainable land force capabilities. While this has set the conditions for the transition from an analogue- to …
Following the interest in recent Strategist posts on top five fighter aircraft and battleships, I offer another top five list (actually top six) of Australia’s best post-war strategic policy decisions. Three selection criteria were applied: …
With Indonesia’s presidential election scheduled for tomorrow, it’s already clear the incoming leader won’t suffer from any shortage of advice about priorities and directions. Within Indonesia, a recently-published pamphlet, ‘Memo to the President: Agenda untuk …
Peter Jennings’ post ‘America: big fires grow from small ones’ has sparked debate (here and here) but appears to have gone unremarked by readers of The Strategist, despite touching on numerous issues. Peter’s not a …
In a recent post, Andrew Davies explained how the government ignored Defence’s advice and chose the MRH90 over the Black Hawk helicopter—presumably because the former offered more for local industry. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with …
I’ve just got back from Wellington, where ASPI was involved in Australia-New Zealand defence cooperation and policy discussions. As usual, we were hosted admirably by our Kiwi colleagues and the cultural and historical affinities between …
Rod Lyon and Malcolm Davis superbly articulate the inherent risk of declaratory policy—just because you limit yourself with regard to nuclear weapons doesn’t mean that your adversaries will benevolently respond in-kind. I agree that it …
Australia is developing the habit of balancing an address to the Parliament by an Asia-Pacific ally with a matching speech by China’s President. The contentious words in that sentence are ‘balancing’ and ‘ally’, even if …
Happy Independence Day to our American friends! We’re kicking off today’s suggests with a celebration: congratulations to Admiral Michelle Howard who became the US Navy’s first female and African-American four-star admiral, when she was promoted …
Today, America marks its Independence Day, the anniversary of one of humanity’s greatest achievements—and boldest experiments. Despite a looming hurricane and a myriad of other challenges ‘foreign and domestic’, here in central Florida the 4th …
While the United States did not formally announce its rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region until January 2012, as part of the Pentagon’s Defense Strategic Guidance, President Obama and several of his top first-term officials—particularly Secretary …
Despite our engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan being all but over, the recent announcement by the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL of Iraq) of the formation of a new caliphate across parts …
‘Wine is serious … we all like wine’, explained ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade in response to a French complaint ahead of last week’s ICANN50 meeting in London. Heralded as the largest-ever ICANN meeting, ICANN50 was …
It’s a truism that without industry capability, there can be no defence capability. Getting acquisition/industry policy right is therefore essential to getting defence policy right. As the Australian Government prepares to deliver a new Defence …
Today’s cyber wrap comes to you from Tokyo where members of the ICPC team are soaking up the warm weather and engaging the Japanese Institute of International Affairs on their thoughts on cyber dynamics in …
As work on the Defence White Paper begins to quicken, I think there ought to be a broader public debate about what Australia’s strategic role should be. This is the under-discussed part of every White …
