China’s treaty on security cooperation with Solomon Islands has two key purposes. First, it helps to extend the military reach of the People’s Liberation Army, complicating America’s task of moving its own forces through the …
In this episode, ASPI’s David Engel and Radityo Dharmaputra, PhD researcher at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu, consider the public response in Indonesia to the Ukraine conflict and …
In the Xi Jinping era, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (commonly known as the Friendship Association, or Youxie) promotes the Belt and Road Initiative, a strategic, political and economic vehicle driving …
Through no fault of their own, developing countries face a perfect storm of famine, political upheaval and debt crises. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Western-led sanctions it triggered are partly to blame, as are …
Wars seldom end in military victory so complete that losers simply accept the victors’ terms. The war in Ukraine is unlikely to end that way. Fighting will cease only if some agreement, formal or informal, …
A subset of a pro–Chinese Communist Party network, known for disseminating disinformation on US-based social media platforms, is breaking away from its usual narratives in order to interfere in the Quad partnership of Australia, India, …
Once better known for its distinctive style of making potent coffee and its gelatinous confectionary cubes called Turkish Delight, these days Turkey is making a name for itself through a more deadly means: as a …
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the newly reunited Germany became a champion and leading exponent of the emerging liberal international order. Germany saw itself, and presented itself to the world, as an economically …
When an Australian jumps out of a taxi and prepares to make a dash across New York’s 5th Avenue, the habit of a lifetime is to look the wrong way for the traffic. Australia drives …
A more agile and capable US Marine Corps will be well placed to work closely with the Australian Defence Force to protect sensitive areas such as maritime choke points in the region, says its commandant, …
Reflecting on Australia’s armoured vehicle debate, it’s apparent that advocates and sceptics often talk past, rather than to, each other, with a sense of good faith sometimes lacking. The topic often sees the privileging of …
Planet A Last week, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the latest instalment of its 6th assessment report series, predicting that the earth is on a global warming trajectory of more than double …
The Australian government’s 2020 defence strategic update was released with a catchy tagline: ‘Shape. Deter. Respond.’ The second two of these strategic objectives are incontrovertibly part of the traditional role of the military: to deter …
Last September, the Australian government announced a review of defence innovation, science and technology following six years of operation of the Defence Innovation Hub. This news was quickly trumped when a mere three days later …
Since the British Type 26 was announced as the reference design for Royal Australian Navy’s nine Hunter-class frigates, the program has been controversial. The recent leaked report on the system design review was extremely negative, …
Amid a heightened fear in Europe of the Russian missile threat, Germany has expressed an interest in buying the Arrow 3 missile-defence system, a joint Israeli–US system designed to confront long-range Iranian missiles. At the …
Led by United Front Work Departments of Chinese Communist Party committees at each echelon of government, the united front system is a complex and opaque set of organisations designed to advance the CCP’s influence in …
How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will play out remains unclear. But it’s already been a geopolitical game-changer—in Europe and beyond. Russia’s aggression has jolted Europe out of its post–Cold War complacency. Lulled by decades of …
Russia’s terrible invasion of Ukraine is looming over the Indo-Pacific with its lessons for Taiwan’s relations with China. Some of those lessons are important reality checks. Assumptions about a nominally superior military force have been …
Most technological advances spark incremental progress. And then a few come along that are truly game-changing. AI is one of those truly transformative technologies. It’s set to revolutionise our lives and workplaces at rapid speed …