Leadership—the ability to help people frame and achieve their goals—is absolutely crucial during a crisis. Winston Churchill demonstrated that while leading Britain in 1940, as did Nelson Mandela during South Africa’s transition from apartheid. By …
China finally achieved an operational underwater nuclear capability in recent years, almost six decades after it first launched its nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) program in the late 1950s. The deployment of the Jin-class (Type …
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s meeting with Australia’s national cabinet was a great step towards working out how travel between our two countries might resume. Done carefully, this will be a boon to our …
The beat Fast food served with sides of guns and drugs during Covid-19 lockdowns Interpol has issued a purple notice alerting member countries that criminal organisations are using food delivery services to transport illegal substances …
Australian universities will soon be administering examinations online to comply with Covid-19-related social-distancing requirements and restrictions on movement. To deter students from cheating, several universities have said that they plan to use online tools to …
The Australian government has been quick to defend its record on energy security by arguing ‘supply chain resilience has meant that during Covid-19 pandemic, we have not faced shortages’. Despite these claims, the government has …
For the past 30 years, geoeconomics has trumped geopolitics. The relative stability of international relations, driven by the absence of great-power rivalry and ideological competition, created an environment conducive to global economic growth. Opening markets …
Border closures and reduced trade and commerce have brought to the fore discussions about the risks and benefits of globalisation, and a strong focus on the need to stockpile fuel in Australia. If the unimaginable …
WPS and Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic is exacting a disproportionate toll on women, in both developed and developing countries. Global justice researcher Rachele Marconi examines the gendered effects of the crisis in Italy. She outlines …
The Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating three fundamental geopolitical trends: the rise of Asia, the decline of the United States, and the strengthening of Germany within Europe. Combined, these shifts may well prefigure the world of …
In my previous post, I noted that there seemed to be no appreciable difference in fatality rates for US states that instituted lockdowns early or late, or among European countries whose social-distancing and lockdown measures …
In an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on 19 April, more than 200 economists rejected commentators’ calls for a rapid return to work and labelled the notion of a ‘trade-off’ between public health …
Sea state Two upgraded Jin-class submarines have entered service in the Chinese navy. The nuclear-powered submarines are the latest in a series of significant additions to the People’s Liberation Army Navy over the past year. …
I had been captive in Afghanistan for about two weeks when the government of my home country, Canada, contacted those attempting to negotiate my release. They told negotiators to get me on the phone the …
When the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes was asked what he did when the facts changed, he replied: ‘I change my mind. What do you do?’ I’m not sure whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison …
The continued strength of the iron ore price is surprising, given the collapse of oil, which traders have recently been willing to pay buyers for if they’ll agree to offload full tankers. Oil and iron …
As Australia faces compounding risks to its national security, our government’s ability to handle them appropriately and efficiently will continue to be tested. One significant element of a national readiness strategy that’s missing from most …
Previous posts in this series have described how three prime ministers appointed the same man, Justice Robert Marsden Hope, to conduct three inquiries into Australia’s intelligence agencies, and discussed the skills and approach that Hope …
A new layer of snow has settled atop the iciness of Australia’s relations with China. Beijing and Canberra bite and bicker over Covid-19. The words are hot but they speak of frigid relations. The diplomatic …
‘This is not a discrete one-off episode’, warned Jeremy Farrar, the head of Wellcome Trust, a global health research foundation. ‘[T]his is now an endemic human infection.’ Covid-19, as Farrar suggests, knows no boundaries, geographic, …