Nation-building can drive economic prosperity, social cohesion and resilience, but we need to engage with the complexity of our modern world to develop pragmatic solutions that address several issues. The temptation to rate one priority …
As the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted critical problems in Papua New Guinea’s vaccination programs and threatened the country’s health security and economic prospects, how, and why, must Australia help? Australia provides development aid to PNG …
‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’ — Edmund Burke, ‘Thoughts on the cause of present discontents’, 1770 The only …
The 10th of October marked the anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution, the 1911 military insurrection in the city of Wuhan against the Qing imperial government. Coming after years of activism for reform and revolution, the …
India–China border tensions have become one of the Indo-Pacific’s defining territorial disputes. The ongoing Ladakh crisis ended more than three decades of confidence-building measures and border agreements in June 2020 with the deaths of Indian …
Colin Powell, former US national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, who died this week at the age of 84, was a quintessential American, the son of immigrants. …
Now that the cacophony surrounding Australia’s submarine decision and the AUKUS announcement has quietened somewhat, it’s timely to mention a much smaller but nonetheless important milestone in building the Royal Australian Navy’s lethality—the pending acquisition …
China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement is dead in the water unless its commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agrees to meet his Australian counterpart, Dan Tehan. Tehan has …
Sea state The Royal Australian Navy has just wrapped up two significant multi-navy drills. Anzac-class frigate HMAS Ballarat and oil tanker HMAS Sirius joined in on phase 2 of Exercise Malabar 2021 with India, Japan …
When US President Bill Clinton backed China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, he suggested that the move would spark profound changes ‘from the inside out’. By joining the WTO, China would not simply be …
In March, the United Kingdom released its integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy, titled Global Britain in a competitive age. It’s quite possible that, after the next federal election, Australia’s government will …
In China’s distant northwest city of Ürümqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Political and Legal Affairs Commission sends ‘micro clues’ to neighbourhood committees and the police when someone does something irregular. That …
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has added science and technology to the portfolio of the defence industry minister, Melissa Price, signalling closer alignment of the research sector with the defence organisation. As that’s been done in …
The relationship between the United States and China promises to do much to define this era. And what could determine this relationship might well be whether the two countries are able to continue to avoid …
By ending the contract with the French and committing to nuclear submarines through AUKUS, Prime Minister Scott Morrison recognised what we’d all come to know: the Attack-class submarine project was costing too much and taking …
The return of strategic competition between states is an established geopolitical trend. But states themselves are getting more fragile, according to the 2021 Fund for Peace Fragile States Index. The index shows an increase in nations …
In Australia, the prevailing view of mobilisation is that it is an activity associated with going to war. In the event of an armed conflict, the nation mobilises to support the Australian Defence Force. Against …
Xi Jinping is positioning the People’s Liberation Army to bring Taiwan under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. The Taiwanese assess perhaps a three-year time frame before an attack, while US Indo-Pacific Command in …
ASPI celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This series looks at ASPI’s work since its creation in August 2001. The world has reached a set of big judgements on global warming and started to act. …
In my previous post, I looked at some of the issues involved in the Royal Australian Navy acquiring or leasing older nuclear-powered attack submarines from the UK to jump-start Australia’s own SSN program. In summary, …