There are times when we must deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. You will hear ministers and departments warn us of that pragmatic requirement when wicked problems and …
While China was imposing punitive barriers against Australian exports, its own sales to Australia were rising rapidly, with growth led by motor vehicles, electric machinery and wind towers. China’s annual sales of manufactured goods (excluding …
‘2023 marks 25 years of Google Search, and a quarter of a century of curiosity,’ said the tech giant in December. At the same time, Google launched its ‘Year in Search’, highlighting how it’s been …
Open radio access network (RAN) technology has featured in key bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the past year. It has been mentioned in the critical technology partnership between the United States and India. Additionally, it …
Australia really does run on the smell of an oily rag. Our fuel reserves are pitifully low by international standards, and we produce very little fuel domestically. This is a risk, both strategically and economically. …
Australia’s food security should not be taken for granted. The Covid-19 pandemic shows what can go wrong with it during seismic strategic challenges. January’s empty supermarket shelves across Darwin, caused by flooding, illustrate the precarious …
The problem with many revolutionary regimes is that the farther away in time they get from the revolution, the less society remembers what came before. And that means that the more that people focus on …
‘The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, …
Getting caught up in geopolitical competition may seem uncomfortable enough for Pacific island countries. What’s making things worse is that outside powers’ struggle to influence them is weakening their resistance to organised crime emanating from …
The following is an edited summary of introductory remarks made to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) today by ASPI executive director Justin Bassi, the head of ASPI’s counter terrorism program, John …
The elevation of the Australia-Vietnam relationship to the highest diplomatic level opens opportunities for deeper defence cooperation, especially the expansion of defence industry. On 7 March, after the conclusion of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in …
The UK’s tilt back to the Indo-Pacific has had no shortage of critics, including in Australia, but it has achieved tangible results and has lifted Britain’s importance in the region. As the frothy post-Brexit rhetoric of Global …
The Yemeni Houthi rebels’ continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea serve as a reminder that global supply chains remain highly vulnerable to disruption. Moreover, it highlights how food insecurity can simultaneously be an …
Today marks 12 months since the release of the ‘optimal pathway’ Australia needed to follow to acquire a force of nuclear-powered and conventionally-armed attack submarines (SSNs) under the AUKUS agreement with the United States and …
Following last week’s by-all-accounts successful Australia-ASEAN summit in Melbourne, I offered some unsolicited advice for an ASEAN audience, on the differences between non-alignment and neutrality. In the same presumptuous vein, my recommendation to Australian readers …
If you are leader of an Australian political party, prime minister, defence minister, foreign minister or Ambassador to the US, the opening paragraph on a speech on the Alliance will contain a reference to our …
So now Chinese police are operating in Kiribati. Let’s be clear about why that’s a problem. If Chinese police are in a country, Chinese expatriates are more easily controlled and groups favoured by China can …
I have previously argued for Australia to take an active role in the design and procurement process for the nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarine (SSN) to be acquired under the AUKUS agreement with the US and …
The future of US-China rivalry is not likely to become a cold war, nor a hot one. Rather, it’s more likely to be a simmer war, a new situation in which there is persistent competition …
Opening up opportunities for Australia’s women in high-tech areas is about much more than fairness. It has become a strategic imperative. This is crucial as Australia faces its most complex array of national security challenges …