The US, Australia and partner countries should take a page from China’s stockpiling playbook. They should build up stockpiles of critical minerals, managing inventories to optimise prices for domestic mineral producers and consumers and to …
The ASEAN-Australia leaders’ summit in Melbourne offers the opportunity for Australia to embrace ASEAN’s ‘inclusive regionalism’ and the organisation’s centrality in mediating the Indo-Pacific struggle between the great powers. With the Albanese government’s $2bn …
Defence cooperation between Australia and Japan has yet to find its top gear but, after a cautious start, that relationship is in pole position among Australia’s regional security partnerships. The road ahead may soon lead …
In the 2023 defence strategic review (DSR), the Australian government recognised that Australia’s innovation ecosystem needed a leg up. Greater support for innovation, reinforced by faster acquisition timelines and deeper ties between government and industry …
Journalists, it has been said, write the first rough draft of history. This is particularly true in China, where official sources and local media provide an incomplete picture and unofficial sources are scarce. As a …
In December 2021 the then president of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in, made a largely unexpected working visit to Australia, at the end of his term, and at unusually short notice. Media speculation was …
Dressed in a suit, tie and knee-length overcoat, ASIO’s 43-year-old second director-general, Charles Spry, walked with his deputy straight past the press photographers and into Canberra’s Albert Hall for the first sitting day of the …
The deployment of population-scale digital public infrastructure (DPI) is gaining traction worldwide and is acknowledged as a necessary and cost-effective intervention to fast-track sustainable development. The G20 also endorsed the ‘Framework for Systems of Digital …
Today’s asymmetric national security environment, characterised by what Foreign Minister Wong recently referred to as ‘grey zone threats’, requires far more than the acquisition of neoteric naval, air, ground, and cyber weapon systems by Australia. …
As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its third year, we need to ask how will this war end? I will examine first, how the military fight is changing and what the prospects are for winners …
Behind the recent spat between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his senior Defence advisors lies a hidden issue: are the governance arrangements for Defence’s high-level decision-making fit for purpose or do they need to be …
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director General Mike Burgess’ Annual Threat Assessment highlighted the principal threats to Australia’s security—in ASIO’s 75th anniversary year. One of the positives from these public announcements, and this was Burgess’ …
The state of deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific is constantly adapting to the evolving threat Beijing poses to the United States and its allies on multiple fronts. But a growing number of US military …
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demonstrates how conflict impacts food security. This nexus will be exacerbated by the impact of climate change, as factors such as increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and frequent hazards become more …
On the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of his country, Ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko has delivered a blunt and heartfelt message to Australia—Ukraine is fighting our war. And it needs more help from Australia and like …
Released 10 months after the defence strategic review (DSR), the annexed and long-awaited review of the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet has finally brought some much-needed clarity on the RAN’s ambitions to expand and …
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s interview this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin showcased a seductive but dangerous myth. Carlson got the reaction he deserved from most mainstream foreign affairs commentators: ridicule at his …
The SSN AUKUS ‘optimal pathway’ calls for the UK to build the first of the nuclear powered and conventionally armed attack submarines at Barrow in Furness, starting as early as the late 2020s. The submarine …
Ana Montes was US Intelligence’s ‘Queen of Cuba’. The Defence Intelligence Agency’s leading Central America analyst; go-to voice on Cuban intentions and capabilities; eldest daughter of a family dedicated to US Government service. She was …
We may never know exactly how and why Alexei Navalny died in the remote Arctic penal colony where he was detained. The communiqué Russian officials issued within two minutes of the popular opposition leader’s reported …