This post is an excerpt from the new ASPI publication ANZUS at 70: the past, present and future of the alliance, released on 18 August. Over the next few weeks, The Strategist will be publishing a selection …
Articles by: "Peter Edwards"
This post is an excerpt from the new ASPI publication ANZUS at 70: the past, present and future of the alliance, released on 18 August. Over the next few weeks, The Strategist will be publishing a selection of …
In a previous post, I noted that the Richardson review of the legislative framework of Australia’s intelligence community robustly rejected many of the claims made for relaxing the constraints on agencies, and its reassertion of …
When the authors of the 2017 independent intelligence review recommended that a ‘suitably qualified person’ review the legislative framework of Australia’s intelligence community, they probably had in mind someone like Justice Robert Marsden Hope, whose …
On 1 September the director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, Rachel Noble, gave a well-publicised speech titled ‘Long histories—short memories: the transparently secret ASD in 2020’. The themes were that the agency would be as …
Unit histories are usually written mainly for members of the unit and their descendants: only a few have lasting historical value. It is, as sporting commentators would put it, a big call to say that …
On the whole, the Australian intelligence agencies emerged from the early 2000s with a better reputation than those of the United States or United Kingdom. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 demonstrated the catastrophic …
Previous posts in this series have described how three prime ministers appointed the same man, Justice Robert Marsden Hope, to conduct three inquiries into Australia’s intelligence agencies, and discussed the skills and approach that Hope …
In a previous post, I described how three prime ministers, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke, appointed Robert Marsden Hope to conduct two royal commissions and another inquiry into the intelligence and security agencies …
The Covid-19 pandemic has given new and sharper emphasis to questions that were already being raised in the public debate. Why are Australians losing trust in public institutions? Are our security organisations striking the right …
Both the title and Peter Greste’s endorsement on the front cover suggest that Brian Toohey’s book is a ‘history of the Australian government’s love affair with secrecy and state power’. Toohey would be well placed …
The period from the Tet offensive of early 1968 to the Moratorium demonstration of May 1970 was the turning point in the most important battlefield of the Vietnam War—the battle for American public opinion. To …