Sea state Australia will build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines under its new ‘AUKUS’ defence pact with the United Kingdom and the United States. The new submarines will be able to operate for months without …
Within the span of a generation, a new super-rich class emerges from a society in which millions of rural migrants toiled away in factories for a pittance. Bribery becomes the most common mode of influence …
The iron ore market is wrong-footing forecasters again, as it has throughout the past 20 years. No one expected the iron ore price to surpass US$200 a tonne as it did in May, and no …
If the architects of the AUKUS pact and its headline initiative to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines imagined it would be seen as proliferation neutral, the reality might not be so straightforward. The announcement was …
So we’ve gone all in. The trend lines have been there for a while, but as several commentators have pointed out already, the awkwardly named AUKUS is a step change in the level of commitment …
Could Xi Jinping be toppled by a coup d’état? In China coup, Roger Garside describes precisely such a scenario—a coup mounted by Xi’s rivals to push him into retirement prior to the November 2022 national …
I’ll admit to being surprised when Australia announced the termination of the deal with Naval Group to build the Attack-class submarines. Not because I thought that shouldn’t happen—I’m on the record as saying that it …
Accusations of backstabbing. Cancelled meetings. Ambassadors recalled. You’d be forgiven for thinking Australia had committed a mortal sin against France. In reality, despite the characteristic French bluster, the change of direction on Australia’s submarines reflects …
Last Thursday’s announcement of Australia’s plans to pursue nuclear-powered submarines and the launch of AUKUS—a new security grouping between Australia, the UK and US aimed at promoting information and technology sharing as well as greater …
Last week’s surprise AUKUS announcement by the United States, Britain and Australia has created a frenzy of focus on nuclear-powered submarines, but the bigger picture is getting lost in a sea of naval analysis. The …
‘Afghanistan was the ultimate nation-building mission’, former US president George W. Bush wrote in his 2010 memoir. ‘We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind …
ASPI celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. This series looks at ASPI’s work since its creation in August 2001. In the language of strategy and defence, the information space has become the battle space. Cyberspace …
What a difference a day makes. On Wednesday, Australians wouldn’t agree to host storage facilities for low-grade medical nuclear waste anywhere in their states. On Thursday, they found out they were going to have nuclear reactors based …
This week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the establishment of a new defence pact between Australia, the US and the UK—AUKUS. As part of this new partnership, …
In 1966, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wrote to his Australian counterpart Harold Holt to explain that Britain would wind back its military deployments in the Asia–Pacific, reducing its presence ‘east of Suez’. Wilson told …
With Australia and the Republic of Korea celebrating the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, this year’s 2+2 foreign and defence ministers’ meeting held on Monday in Seoul reflects an expanding security agenda between the …
Planet A New research shows that rising temperatures from climate change have caused physical changes in warm-blooded species to help them dispel heat and regulate body temperature. These changes indicate generations of persistent overheating, and …
Ninety years ago, on 18 September 1931, a junior Japanese military officer detonated an explosive that had been carefully laid by a Japanese-owned railroad near the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang (then known in the …
Australia’s bold decision to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines is a revolutionary strategic policy shift prompted entirely by China’s unrelenting military aggression and political coercion throughout the Indo-Pacific region. The question is no longer …
Amid the flags and fine words announcing the arrival of AUKUS, no one should mistake the reality that the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia each have their own desperate need for this quasi …