Thucydides trap: from the Greek historian’s statement that the alarm of the established power at the challenge of the rising power makes war inevitable. The Asia–Pacific ponders the growing chances of war. Australia’s policy community …
Articles by: "Graeme Dobell"
At the mid-point of Labor’s three-year term, the international strategy and statecraft of the new government is more fully formed than its domestic identity. Global turmoil—the polycrisis—has quickly tested and tempered the government’s world view. Whatever …
The APEC summit in San Francisco this week offers poignant echoes and painful contrasts with the first summit in Seattle 30 years ago. Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation is always ‘four adjectives in search of a noun’, …
The phrase ‘great and powerful friend’ is a totem of Australian defence, setting strategy since federation. The totem’s purpose is to make and manage The Alliance—capitalise and underline it as crucial and central. The search …
The case for Australia to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rests on the challenges ASEAN confronts as much as the association’s strengths. Australia needs to take the next logical step in its long …
‘Strategy without money is just hot air.’ — Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles speaking at ASPI’s 2023 conference, 14 September, Canberra At ASPI’s national conference, the deputy PM and defence minister was …
Myanmar moves from military coup to a civil war that is now a revolution. The junta’s bungled effort to turn the clock back by seizing power in February 2021 has been a bloody fiasco. The …
The Arab world ‘has too much history and not enough geography’. Savour that vivid phrase as the essence of Bob Bowker’s fine memoir of life as an Australian entranced by a Middle East that is …
Australia’s strategic journey since 2009 has shifted from the optimism of regional community, to a plea for rules, and now to a heartfelt call for dialogue. Running through the evolution of Australian thinking is a …
The Asia–Pacific’s premier defence dialogue uses the name of the mythical place ‘Shangri-La’, a utopia of peace high in the mountains in the 90-year-old novel Lost Horizon. Amid the tough talk at the 20th dialogue …
In the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy ship and a US Navy ship came within 150 yards of a collision. The US says the Chinese warship crossed the bow of …
‘To move from imagining conflict is impossible to assuming war is inevitable is just as harmful to our shared goals. The fate of our region is not preordained. It never was. It never is. What we do here, …