Data has been referred to as the ‘new oil’ or ‘new gold’, but it’s more than that. Most organisations can’t function without it. That applies equally to governments. Australian government data creation, collection, storage and …
When the struggling street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on 17 December 2010, he could not possibly have imagined how consequential his desperate protest would be. By sparking a wave …
To our national detriment, much of the public discussion on war crimes alleged to have been committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan is focusing on secondary, peripheral or irrelevant issues. Some public confusion has resulted …
The subsidiary of a Chinese defence conglomerate nicknamed ‘the Huawei of airport security’ is increasingly dominant in border-control and security-screening technologies globally. Last month, Canada’s foreign affairs department backflipped on its plan to buy security …
The Kingdom of Morocco has come full circle in its relations with Israel and its stance on the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence. It has revived its 1990s approach by recognising the Jewish state …
In an already acrimonious year for Australia–China relations, an ‘utterly outrageous’ tweet from a mid-level official at China’s foreign affairs ministry shows the extent to which the Chinese-language media environment is being shaped by the …
US President-elect Joe Biden has signalled that he won’t simply reverse Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and stated that the United States would rejoin the agreement if Iran returned to …
So, all Australian coal exports to China seem to have stopped. As usual, the Chinese government is keeping its actual decisions to itself and letting them leach out through state media and other sources. In this …
US President-elect Joe Biden has identified Antony Blinken as his preferred secretary of state. Challenges and opportunities abound to refashion outgoing President Donald Trump’s foreign policies that aggressively rolled back Obama-era commitments. The ‘America first’ …
Sea state The US Navy is planning to raise a 1st Fleet for the first time since 1973 in response to China’s naval build-up in the South China Sea. Under the plan, ships would likely …
A key challenge facing President-elect Joe Biden will be whether the United States should rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was intended to persuade Iran to abandon its plans to develop nuclear weapons. …
Much has been written about the changing international order and the ‘crisis’ of multilateralism in recent months. The winds of change have been howling, indeed. International treaties and the multilateral system, with the United Nations …
Last month, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a £16.5 billion (A$29 billion) increase in funding for the British Armed Forces, on top of an increase of 0.5% above inflation per year announced in the …
The impact of Covid-19 and Australia’s rapidly evolving strategic environment have highlighted the requirement to invest in a sovereign defence industry. The Australian government clearly articulated its ambition for a strong and sustainable capability in …
Two adages come to mind as I write this: ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’, and ‘A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.’ Taken together, the two maxims sum up …
In the first part of this series we saw that Australia’s Defence Department is increasingly reliant on a large number of contractors that are costing a lot of money. Should we be worried about this …
Morocco is the latest Arab country to formalise a relationship with Israel that has been an open secret for decades. There were Moroccan and Israeli liaison offices in each other’s capitals until 2002 when Rabat …
On 1 December, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, gave a 15-minute television interview with journalist Stan Grant on the ABC. In the interview, Wu robustly described coercion from Beijing, including incursions from military aircraft, the …
Thailand has a long history of political instability and civil strife, with democracy having been repeatedly disrupted by a strong culture of military intervention and monarchical overreach during the past century. Against this backdrop, the …
Nobody wants to pay for good foreign policy, but everybody pays for bad foreign policy. Join that truth to a reality that rules the public service tribes of Canberra: your foes must also be your …