The European Union is in the process of rethinking its relations with China, with an increasing awareness that China presents mounting challenges to core European values and interests. In Brussels, the issue of systemic rivalry …
Transaction, not stability, has always been the defining feature of Australia’s bilateral relationship with China, placing hard limits on its development. While not advertised at the time, China’s 2013 commitment to an enhanced framework for …
India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country sometime this year. And while China has already passed its demographic zenith and begun to age, India’s ascent will continue for decades. To …
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is heading to Papua New Guinea this week for an annual leaders’ dialogue—his first overseas trip for 2023, and the first time an Australian prime minister has visited PNG since 2018 …
The autocrat sits at his hu-u-u-u-u-u-uge table. Vladimir imagines power and pomp. But the picture the world sees is Putin isolated and unable to hear. If the man wasn’t a war criminal brandishing nukes, the …
Policymakers around the world will need to address a confluence of economic, political and climate-related shocks in 2023. While governments can’t solve these crises alone, deft political leadership will be crucial to holding societies together …
Originally published 24 March 2022. The 2020 defence strategic update states that the Australian Defence Force is ‘to deploy military power to shape our environment, deter actions against our interests and, when required, respond with …
Originally published 4 October 2022. I’ve often thought that Australia’s submarine transition is a wicked problem, perhaps one of the most wicked in the public policy arena. A wicked problem is one that is difficult …
Late in 2022—a year of war, pandemic, climatic disaster and attempted nuclear coercion—a number of news outlets published a photograph of a rare event. True, the photograph was of particular interest to only a small …
Originally published 17 October 2022. Iran’s mass movement of popular protest, sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the country’s notorious morality police, has now entered its fifth …
Originally published 26 September 2022. The smoke has cleared from China’s military exercises in the Taiwan Strait last month, and the sequence of events highlights some of the realities of the regional security outlook. US …
Originally published 2 November 2022. We often think about national resilience at times of crisis or conflict. However, the foundations for resilience are built with every decision we make before a crisis begins to unfold. …
Originally published 29 April 2022. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says China’s security deal with Solomon Islands was a ‘politically illiterate’ move if Beijing is sincere about improving relations with Australia. Speaking at an ASPI …
Originally published 27 October 2022. After a year of intense research, the head of the 350-strong nuclear-powered submarine taskforce is confident the Royal Australian Navy will be equipped with SSNs. Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead tells …
Originally published 28 March 2022. When the draft security agreement between Solomon Islands and China landed in the news cycle on Thursday, we shared a sense of dread. Initial analysis of the agreement in the …
Originally published 31 March 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the poorer than expected performance of the Russian army have prompted fierce debate among military commentators on why Russia’s much-vaunted military reforms of the …
Originally published 14 October 2022. Rumours that President Xi Jinping was under house arrest amid a military coup in China—apparently driven by Falun Gong–linked social media accounts known for spreading factually problematic information—spread widely in …
When is a coup not a coup? When it’s called a constitutional crisis. But make no mistake, there’s a coup attempt in progress in Fiji, even if its foot soldiers are in the bureaucracy and …
Few will miss 2022, a year defined by a lingering pandemic, advancing climate change, galloping inflation, slowing economic growth and, more than anything else, the outbreak of a costly war in Europe and concerns that …
In an address to the National Press Club this month, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil expressed deep concern about the national security implications of climate change. ‘When Home Affairs was created, the discussion about climate change and …