Former Australian defence minister Ian McLachlan has made a timely plea for genuine bipartisanship in defence planning to provide advice based on experience and to ensure continuity across successive governments. McLachlan, who was defence minister …
Kim Beazley recalls the 1980s when he oversaw a restructuring of Australia’s military establishment comfortable in the knowledge that no major attack was likely in the coming decade. That luxury is gone, he says. Beazley, …
An Australian ministerial visit to Brunei Darussalam normally triggers little strategic interest. But there may be more than meets the eye to Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’s meeting this week with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, sandwiched in …
The Shangri-La Dialogue is speed dating for defence ministers. Singapore has just hosted the 18th annual version of this defence dance done with summit trappings. The 22 ministers were a sizeable grouping of stars. Then …
The widely accepted view that Australia is broadly in Asia without being part of Asia is being challenged as an assertive China, threats from North Korea, foreign fighters returning to the region and insurgency in …
