ASPI will celebrate its 20th anniversary later this year. This series looks at ASPI’s work since its creation in August 2001. The name is the game: the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. ASPI thinks about strategy. …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
Beyond defending Australia and New Zealand, the original purpose of the ANZUS alliance was to keep the US in, Japan down and China out. This aphorism reworks its original NATO context (keep the Russians out, …
It’s hard to believe these days, but Australia used to be shy about proclaiming a defence or security guarantee to Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. In the 1970s and 1980s, a gap opened …
‘As one of many Pacific Island nations, Australia is historically and indelibly linked to its neighbours in the region. Our shared history of endurance and mutual assistance during times of major international conflict, natural disaster, …
Here are 14 points on the longest icy age between Australia and China since diplomatic relations were established nearly 50 years ago. The 14 points match the number—but not spirit—of the Chinese embassy’s 14 angry …
‘Global strategic focus has shifted to the Indo-Pacific. How the region handles the next few years will determine if it becomes the cradle of crises or solutions.’ — Cleo Paskal, Indo-Pacific strategies, perceptions and partnerships, …
It’s 1988 and Australia has only a handful of women ambassadors, with just four women serving as heads of mission. Making a program on the emerging feminine side of Oz diplomacy 33 years ago, 60 …
‘We strive for a region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion.’ — Quad leaders’ joint statement, ‘The spirit of the Quad’, 13 March 2021 The leaders’ meeting of …
The pandemic has geopolitical and geoeconomics equivalents. Disruption all around, amid the end of the old global order. The central truths that set the topography of Australian grand strategy in Asia—the four compass points—haven’t fallen, …
The term ‘grand strategy’ is usually too grandiose for the practical types who run Canberra. Australia does baling-wire diplomacy—pragmatic and proudly makeshift—fixing stuff with a bit of wire and keeping it going. Big powers do …
‘Australia’s strategic environment has deteriorated more rapidly than anticipated … Our region is in the midst of the most consequential strategic realignment since the Second World War … The Indo-Pacific is at the centre of …
‘Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and face the strange) Ch-ch-changes Don’t want to be a richer man Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and face the strange) Ch-ch-changes There’s gonna have to be a different man Time may change me But I …