A landmark Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Australia came into force last week. Negotiated within the space of just nine months, it is Australia’s first free trade agreement with any …
Debate over the Pukpuk treaty has focused on China and whether Australia’s military might one day use Papua New Guinea’s geography or fight alongside PNG forces in a regional contingency involving Beijing and Washington. But …
A patrol boat shadows an unflagged vessel near a cable landing station in the Pacific. There’s no nearby base. No time to escalate. But a single secure message, sent from a handheld device, alerts regional …
The path to a truly safe and secure Indo-Pacific is not just through military interoperability; it requires a more holistic and enduring form of statecraft that recognises food security as a foundation of cooperation. A …
Australia relies on rugby as a key diplomatic instrument in the Pacific. However, the influence of sport depends not only on how much it invests but also on where, how and with whom those investments …
Whoever wins this weekend’s contest to lead Japan’s ruling party could throw Australia the lifeline it desperately needs to secure the future of AUKUS Pillar One amid doubts about the program’s viability. A submarine program …
Australia’s northern air bases are vital to national defence, yet improving their resilience remains a work in progress. And the progress is incremental. This isn’t a new task. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR), putting …
As Defence prepares the 2026 National Defence Strategy, Mungalulu Truscott Airbase should be recognised as a multi-user critical infrastructure asset—a forward node complementing Darwin that enables logistics, personnel dispersal and operational resilience across northern Western …
Japan, India and Australia’s converging interests would be fortified by a Japan-ASEAN-Australia-India economic corridor championed by the United States. Japan and India—the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest economies, respectively—are determinedly deepening their bilateral partnership amid Chinese …
The world was riveted on 3 September by Beijing’s parade of 12,000 troops from the Chinese armed forces, especially by their latest-tech kit on display. This is a manifestly modern-looking army. But that’s not good …
Australia’s security risks are sharpest where people and technology meet. This is the space where data flows, disinformation spreads and innovation thrives—and where defences can be breached. Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy recognises that lasting protection …
Zbigniew Brzezinski was a lifelong Cold War hawk who was deeply suspicious of the Soviet Union. The invasion of Poland by Russian and German troops in 1939 left a lasting impression on the young immigrant, …
In 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 and established the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. This formally recognised not only the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls, but also …
The Indo-Pacific’s networked deterrence architecture must evolve into an institutionalised, combined joint mechanism that can harness the collective power of like-minded nations. Without change, a coalition approach will fail to deter threats to sovereignty and …
Artificial intelligence and its ability to perform intellectual tasks previously the preserve of humans are improving at a stunning rate, and yet we are complacent or politically paralysed in the face of this transformation. The …
The best thing about Ukraine’s new Flamingo, a 6-tonne carbon fibre monstrosity with a secondhand turbofan engine and basic guidance, is that it’s cheap. One of the cruise missiles may cost just US$500,000. Taiwan should …
Economic coercion is rarely as dramatic as missiles or armies, but its consequences can be just as destabilising. The weaponisation of interdependence has become an increasingly potent tool of statecraft as globalisation has bound nations, …
International security discussions often focus on traditional hard threats such as military aggression, nuclear weapons and economic coercion. But some of the future’s most dangerous flashpoints may emerge from something more basic: access to water. …
Australia has world-class quantum talent. But without testbeds, procurement pathways and clear missions, that promise won’t translate into capability. While Australia has clear strengths in quantum computing, it will be a long-term undertaking, though one …
Greenland, an often-overlooked expanse of ice and rock, is fast becoming a focal point of strategic competition between the United States, China and Russia. Speaking on ASPI’s Stop the World, Elizabeth Buchanan—an Arctic specialist and author …