US President Joe Biden’s first international crisis will likely be over the future of Taiwan. Beijing has been positioning for this outcome for months by steadily increasing military pressure against Taipei. The People’s Liberation Army …
Working in the public service can be a fraught game. Senior public servants doing the nation’s business in Canberra play for high stakes. A service career can consume much—even the career itself. There’s sharp competition …
It’s time for Australia’s second most hotly anticipated annual countdown. That’s right, the top 10 articles of the year as determined by you, dear Strategist readers, through your clicks. In a year dominated by the …
Like a lot of immigrants to Australia, my family settled in this country to escape a war. We came here from southern central Africa in the 1970s. What was then Rhodesia was tearing itself apart …
On 11 December, President Donald Trump proclaimed that the United States would recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, an apparent reward for the country’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. The move …
With 26 January looming, many Australians will be ashamed of the fact that First Nations people in this country are among the most incarcerated on the planet. Our children are almost 10 times more likely …
Australia gives security guarantees to two nations that have land borders with Indonesia—Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. The word ‘guarantee’ rightly makes Oz politicians, diplomats and lawyers cautious, even nervous: never say forever, never say …
As the world bets on vaccines as a way out of the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine candidates have quickly become a vehicle for national influence. China, Russia and India, for example, are each quick to publicly …
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and reckonings with police brutality in the United States, some have pushed the idea that hiring more women will help fix the problem. A similar sentiment …
The wellbeing and security of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples, especially those in regional and remote communities, has long been stymied by wrong-headed assumptions and policies. In recent years, the consensus view of …
In 1976, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergei Georgyevich Gorshkov published his exposition of Soviet maritime strategy under the title The sea power of the state. It was translated by United States …
A sigh of relief swept across Europe when it became clear that Joe Biden would replace Donald Trump in the White House. New leadership in the United States would mean that after four years of …
Covid-19 is a gritty and primitive specimen—so primitive that scientists dispute whether it qualifies as a form of life. But it is wickedly contagious and possessed of fiendishly advanced stealth capabilities. The pandemic erased ‘normality’ …
Australia has a history of importing key military platforms from the United States—examples include the F-35A Lightning II, F/A-18F Super Hornet, P-8A Poseidon and M1A1 Abrams tank. But there are now several near-term opportunities for …
In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was common to divide countries and their responses according to their political systems, with many attributing China’s success in controlling the virus to its authoritarianism. By …
Turkey is feeling the squeeze. How else to explain President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks in late December signalling his interest in closer relations with Israel? Turkey has also reportedly picked a new ambassador to Israel …
It’s been a decade since the popular uprising known as the Arab Spring swept several Arab countries in pursuit of democratic societal transformations. Yet, of all the affected states, only Tunisia has remained on that …
ASEAN member states are prime targets for cybercrime given their position among the fastest-growing digital economies in the world. As described in a 2020 Interpol report, the impact of cybercrime will only increase as cybercriminals …
Indian legislators woke up in the new year to two realisations. First, the annual winter session of parliament, from which they should just have been emerging, had not taken place at all. And, second, New …
If you need cutting-edge skills and technology—high-tech gears for satellite systems, top-level secure communication systems or a deep knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning—you can find them in Australia. ‘What this country has is …