If elected to government, the Labor Party says it will enhance Australia’s economic sovereignty and national security by creating a strategic merchant shipping fleet. As a first step, it will appoint a taskforce to guide …
Articles by: "Sam Bateman"
In an incident that has attracted relatively little media attention in Australia, the modern 5,300-ton Norwegian frigate KNM Helge Ingstad sank in a Norwegian fjord after a collision with the large Maltese-registered oil tanker Sola …
Much has been written recently about the decision to redevelop the naval base at Lombrum on Manus Island. Initially it was to be a joint Australia–PNG facility, but American vice president Mike Pence has announced …
As a backgrounder to the APEC meeting in Port Moresby this week, we recently set out in The Australian some of the broad maritime and border security issues Papua New Guinea faces. Here we’d like …
There’s been a lot of talk on The Strategist lately about a Plan B for Australia’s defence. Much of the discussion has called for increased defence spending and greater action by Australia to support the …
The US Navy had a horror year in 2017 with tragic accidents and a major corruption scandal. While the cause may have been mainly budgetary, with inadequate resources allowed the navy, deeper cultural issues might …
Over 20 years ago, at a conference in Sydney hosted by the Australian Navy, then-Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian referred to the ‘Vasco Da Gama Epoch’. That was a reference to an expression originally …
ASPI recently published an anthology of pieces about the ruling by an Arbitral Tribunal established under the UN Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) to deal with the dispute between China and the Philippines in …
While the recent ruling by an Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague addressing the dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea has been hailed as a ‘game changer’ (PDF) and a ‘heavy …
The US has conducted another freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea. On 30 January, the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, a naturally formed …
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has been hearing arguments recently in The Republic of Philippines v The People’s Republic of China case over competing claims in the South China Sea. The …
Criticisms of the Northern Territory Government’s decision to lease sections of Darwin Port to Landbridge, a Chinese company, have come from two main sources—US commentators who see an opportunity to drive a wedge between Australia …