The venerable Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC is hosting its fifth annual conference on the South China Sea on Wednesday, Australian time. It’s my privilege to be speaking at the conference …
Getting China right is a key challenge for Australian foreign policy. It’s not easy to do given our tendency to scare ourselves witless with overblown assessments of Chinese power. Foreign observers who know China well …
The following is an abridged extract from ASPI’s new report, Gen Y jihadists: preventing radicalisation in Australia, released today. Australia’s counter terrorism policies cover a vast range of responses, from military operations in the Middle …
It’s budget week in Canberra. Politicians and influencers fly in to confab with stressed bureaucrats, complain about the cold and fog and watch autumn leaves falling faster than interest rates. At this time thoughts turn …
Following the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran last night, it doesn’t pay to let hurt or anger drive one’s thinking about Australia–Indonesia ties. Those who care about the relationship—mostly politicians and officials, not …
Previously on the Life cycle of the Australian defence review we explored the life pattern of this robust herd animal from conception to gestation, birth, infant years and the review’s emergence into full maturity. This time …
If the venerable British naturalist David Attenborough was to make a television series entitled The life cycle of the Australian defence review, he would say that reviews are to Defence what the Gnu or Wildebeest …
There was a change of tone in Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s media conference this week, where he announced the deployment of the Australian and New Zealand training contingent to Taji, Iraq. Gone was the more …
In between steaming bowls of organic steel-cut oats and workouts deploying the one-legged Romanian deadlift, supple Bob Carr’s Diary of a Foreign Minister heaps praise on Hillary Clinton, ‘a world-historical figure’ for her energy, sharpness …
Smiling faces beam from the cover of Creating One Defence. These happy folks, with photos balanced for gender and Service, are pleased that Defence business processes have had their 36th substantive review since 1973. They …
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran continue to endure their mental torture, awaiting a final decision on their execution. It’s a slim hope but Indonesia’s political and judicial systems are opaque and bendable enough that their …
This piece was drawn from the second part of a presentation to the 2015 Chief of Air Force Symposium, the theme of which was ‘Integrating Air Power.’ At last year’s Air Power Conference in Canberra I spoke …