Professionals and experts are often heard with dissonance today. Two contrasting recent studies concerning European views on Russia shine a partial light on why that’s so. They also may point to future issues of strategic …
The appalling carnage in the Middle East and Afghanistan hasn’t dampened the appetite for war. It would be absurd to lay the total blame on the US and its allies for those calamities. They faced …
It’s tricky. On one hand, moral superiority can lead dangerously to intolerance. But too much tolerance can open up strategic problems. That seems to be the crux of Mark Thomson’s proposition in his recent piece …
Emmanuel Macron will most likely win the French presidency in the second round of the election process, much to the delight of those quaking in fear of populism and the threat it poses to the …
The Australian government’s linear, one dimensional strategic thinking is again on open and disturbing display. It simply appears to consist of ‘three cheers for the hegemon’! Prime Minister Turnbull recently welcomed the prospect of growing …
We’ll have to wait to see what Donald Trump’s election means for Europe. Immediate responses have predicted a boost for right wing populist political parties in Europe. The presence and popularity of Eurosceptic and nationalist …
With the Trump presidency comes the prospect of the irretrievable loss of some things the strategic pundits thought would persist. Sticking to the old narrative of the US position in the world won’t serve. To …
Realists argue there’s only one genuine philosophical principle to guide a nation’s foreign policy. In the first recorded debate between realists and idealists, Thucydides reported the Athenians telling the Melians, ‘the strong do what they …
The authors of the European Union’s (EU) ambitious Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe – Global Strategy for European Foreign and Security Policy (GSEFSP) must have been aware it was unrealisable. They can’t have …
The Arctic is a region where great power competition will play out in coming years. Russia has significant strategic and economic interests in the region, and for China the Arctic may prove to have important …
Earlier this year PwC reported it had identified ‘the equivalent of US$250 billion in projects… [which have] been built already, recently started construction or have been agreed on and signed’ related to China’s One Belt …
Under what circumstances would Australia join in a war against China? RAND’s report War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable (WwC) illuminates the gravity of that decision. WwC explores ‘two variables: intensity (from mild to …