New army chief Rick Burr encourages his troops to embrace a new sport with a deadly serious purpose: drone racing. Various types of small ‘copters and fixed-wing aircraft blast around obstacle courses and through rugged …
In August 1918, the battlefield of the Western Front was something that no soldier there had yet experienced. For the first time in three and a half years, movement had been restored to the battlefield. …
What explains Australia’s bizarre leadership churn? No prime minister has served a full term since 2007, with five different faces becoming prime minister in the last five years: Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull—and now, …
The Talking Heads’ 1985 hit ‘Road to nowhere’ provided a rather entertaining, if somewhat bleak, perspective on the futility of life: we are born, we live and we die. While we don’t necessarily agree with …
Australia’s deteriorating security outlook, and what it means for our strategic relationships and our defence planning, has been a hot topic of late. Two key articles, by Paul Dibb and Peter Jennings, highlight the growing …
On 8 August 1918, the British Fourth Army, with French support, attacked astride the Somme River on the Western Front. Germany’s de facto commander-in-chief, General Erich Ludendorff, famously labelled the Amiens offensive, as it is …
How Australia acts to protect its public square from foreign interference in the digital age will be a defining issue for our country—and for democracies the world over. Australia has already been a canary in …
The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, volume I, The story of ANZAC from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase of the Gallipoli campaign, May 4, 1915, …
The recent collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy dam in Laos shows Southeast Asia’s vulnerability to natural disasters and highlights the importance of emergency preparedness, safety regulation, and sustainable development planning in energy security policies. It …
If the Australia–US alliance were a family car, then this year’s AUSMIN was a very successful routine-maintenance period. That’s good news in comparison with other US allies’ engagements with America’s leaders recently (think G7, NATO, …
Arrangements between sovereign states fall into one of two broad categories (putting colonialism and suzerainty aside): hegemony and balance of power. Is Australia facing a succession of hegemons or a world in which there is …
The US–Australia alliance focuses too much on its past and too little on its future. That may seem sacrilegious, particularly amid the ongoing celebrations of 100 years of mateship. We should certainly honour the service …