The war in Iran has just entered its second month. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei is dead, global fuel trade has stalled and the United States’ relationship with its allies is at a low. In this …
Just reports of mines are often sufficient to disrupt maritime traffic. Even if ship owners, crews and insurers weren’t aware of the missile threat in the Strait of Hormuz, news reporting of sea mines in …
Australians are watching fuel prices and wondering how bad this could get. Donald Trump’s comments on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday delivered a blunt message: Don’t assume the United States will carry …
For centuries, the Arctic was considered the exclusive domain of polar bears, exotic marine life and the occasional intrepid explorer. However, as climate change has thawed the polar ice, it has also opened up new …
In Myanmar, the junta’s air campaign against civilian communities has become one of the most decisive tools sustaining its rule. Imported jet fuel is therefore a strategic lifeline for the junta, and investigations indicate that, …
Fuel crises expose a hard truth: systems fail when governments ration for comfort instead of economic capability. Australia faces that test as disruption in the Strait of Hormuz constrains global energy flows and highlights a …
Australia should restart domestic helium production. Government action will be needed for it to do so. Iranian strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas complex have knocked out roughly a third of the world’s helium supply. …
Australians feeling the sting of high fuel prices at the bowser or seeing supplies struggle to reach regional communities are being reminded just how dependent Australia is on the arrival of supplies by sea. That dependence sits …
Is it possible at this juncture of the Iran war to extrapolate out the domestic political consequences for the United States, particularly for President Donald Trump? Let’s look at two possibilities. The first is a …
Australia needs to revisit its defence industrial base strategy. The country’s military industry should be reshaped to offer serious value to the United States and in doing so improve Australia’s own self-reliance. It now offers …
China is no longer merely leading the research in major technology fields. It’s also moving towards a monopolistic position in most of them, the latest update of ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker shows. As wars in …
A remarkable conclave took place in Hanoi on 16 March. China’s foreign affairs, defence and public security ministers met their Vietnamese counterparts in a strategic dialogue. The ministerial mechanism is new in the China–Vietnam relationship, …
Governments say they want diversified critical minerals supply chains. Yet many regulatory systems still require a decade or more to move new mines from discovery to production. Getting a processing plant going is similarly protracted. …
Most cyber analysis begins with incidents. It should begin with intent. Adversaries sometimes declare strategic priorities, yet cyber incidents that align with them are not assessed accordingly. We should in fact be guarding against intrusions …
Australia has a narrow window to act if it wants any leverage in what comes next in AI, the most transformative technology of our era. Building data centres and enabling AI training to happen here …
If disruption to food and energy systems has become persistent rather than episodic, Australia needs better ways to test how those systems perform under sustained and overlapping shocks. In short, it should apply stress-testing to …
The Sino-Russian no-limits partnership is the driver of an anti-Western axis that seeks to weaken and reshape the global order that has underpinned Australia’s post-1945 prosperity and sovereignty. Naysayers may claim it isn’t an alliance, …
Debate over China’s role in Australia’s security has become polarised, with critics retreating to a familiar refrain: China is our largest trading partner, so any security concerns are exaggerated. That argument is not just incomplete; …
The United States and the European Union are both working to reduce their dependence on China for critical minerals, but they’re taking markedly different approaches. As both powers pursue critical-mineral independence through different means, the …
The sinking by submarine attack of the Iranian frigate Dena in the Indian Ocean on 4 March is a blunt reminder that maritime war does not respect the tidy geographic boundaries favoured in policy frameworks. …