Unclassified, official histories of secret intelligence organisations for public readership seem a contradiction in terms. The official works are commissioned by the agencies in question and directly informed by the agencies’ records, thus distinguishing them …
In 2024, Australian security relies on maintaining a resilient democracy and an underlying strong civil society as much as it does on secrecy to protect sensitive information from foreign or domestic threat actors. For two …
Anwar Ibrahim would not be the first political dissident who has struggled with the transition from opposition to incumbency. In office, his grasp of complex policy issues, such as the South China Sea, has sometimes …
If China sets up the first permanent Moon base, it could easily upend the US-sponsored Artemis Accords on lunar colonisation and take control of part of the Moon. Its behaviour in Antarctica already shows how. …
The next National Defence Strategy (NDS) statement and its accompanying spending plan will have to pay a lot more attention to the Royal Australian Air Force’s future air combat capability. And they must aim at …
Just as the West has been forced into confrontation with Russia and China, military conflicts have revealed major systemic weaknesses in the US and European militaries and their defence-industrial bases. These problems stem from fundamental …
‘Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.’ Whether these words come from General Omar Bradley or General Norman Schwartzkopf (opinions vary), their message is clear. And when it comes to the Australian Army’s huge investment in …
Vice President Kamala Harris has officially secured the Democratic presidential nomination, after the Democratic National Convention announced late Monday evening in DC that 99 percent of delegates voted for her. ASPI experts provide their analysis …
It isn’t clear whether Hanwha Ocean is still interested in buying Australian shipbuilder Austal, but the government should oppose such an acquisition by the South Korean company or any other contender for the general purpose …
It has been seven years since the drafting of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has now been ratified or acceded to by 70 nations. While its recognition is extraordinary, including …
Australian government departments should develop an engagement strategy with online influencers and invite them to join the press in attending international and security events. In a society increasingly dominated by social media or other content-sharing …
Despite the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in 2000, progress towards gender equality for uniformed women in UN peace operations has been exceedingly slow. The lofty aspiration …
Over the last few months, Australia has witnessed the tragic Bondi attack, Wakely Church stabbing, Sydney University stabbing, and an alleged attempted terrorist attack on the offices of NSW MLA Tim Crakanthorp. Today, in response …
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) is a common element in an extraordinary number of high-level corruption arrests of military offices and defence-industry officials, a review of Chinese documents and official statements reveals. The full …
Time and time again, cyber attackers have shown nothing is off limits. Healthcare, telecommunications and banking. Education, public sector and energy. In the past few years, headlines have highlighted the scale of disruption cyber attackers …
The 1972 movie The Candidate is a good metaphor for the current state of AUKUS, the tri-nation consortium for supplying Australia with eight nuclear submarines (SSNs) and other technology. In the movie, Robert Redford plays …
With Donald Trump still leading in polls ahead of the US presidential election, many are wondering how a second Trump administration would approach China. Trump’s stance on purely political issues is unclear. He recently remarked …
A covert social media campaign operated by the Chinese government appears to be spreading a deepfake video seeking to undermine support for Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, according to new research conducted by ASPI. China …
It seems that espionage, specifically driven by ideology, is making a comeback—a motivation we in the West have naively considered a relic of the past, especially when directed against us. And if the Russian-born Brisbane …
Humans are a tool-making species, but can we control the tools we make? When Robert Oppenheimer and other physicists developed the first nuclear fission weapon in the 1940s, they worried that their invention might destroy …
