Mark Beeson’s recent piece on the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘The revenge of Gaia?’, was a bewildering read. Beeson suggested that Covid-19 is, like climate change, ‘a product of changes in the natural environment’ and ‘partly a consequence …
The Australian government is properly focused on managing the domestic effects of Covid-19. But we must also think about a changing external environment. Middle powers are not generally prime movers in major international shifts, tending rather …
The novel coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread throughout the nation in January, and then across the world. Now, there are over 1.2 million confirmed cases across more than 183 …
While the United States and China squabble about the origins of the novel coronavirus, a more serious contest is underway over the severe economic sanctions against Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and, to a …
The novel coronavirus has been steadily creeping into our communities. As we seek to ensure our families’ health and safety, to many people food has never seemed so important, both as a source of nutrition …
Just as all politics is local, so Canberra is ever about politics (it’s the whole reason the place was built). Pandemic has smashed into Australia’s capital, remaking the dynamic and direction of politics. Normal politics …
This post is an edited excerpt from ASPI’s Counterterrorism yearbook 2020. The full text of the yearbook, which includes notes and sources for each chapter, is available for download on ASPI’s website. A number of …
In this episode, ASPI’s Lisa Sharland talks to International Crisis Group UN Director Richard Gowan about the centre’s recent report, Covid-19 and conflict: seven trends to watch. Earlier this year, Bart Hogeveen of ASPI’s International …
Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a point of emphasising Australia’s commitment to ‘our Pacific island family’ in his remarks at last week’s virtual special G20 summit. In addition to the support already provided for healthcare, …
Covid-19 is confronting humanity with its most severe test since 1918, when an influenza pandemic killed more people than died in World War I. Yet the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, China and …
If one positive comes from coronavirus-inspired panic buying, let’s hope it’s that Australians begin to reconsider the wisdom of our reliance on overseas supply chains and just-in-time inventory for critical resources and supplies. And if …
Black swan events produce big but unforeseen consequences. Was Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison right, even prescient, in his speech at the Lowy Institute on 3 October 2019? It’s hard to think of a better example …
In this pandemic, every nation’s leaders and institutions are rightly focused on ensuring the wellbeing of their own populations. Despite this introspection, Australia cannot achieve that result without cooperation with its regional and broader international …
The beat Australian police enforce coronavirus restrictions Human rights advocates are worried about new measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Australia. The federal government announced new restrictions, but states have applied the physical …
Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalised. In …
In their prophetic 2018 book, The end of epidemics, authors Jonathan Quick and Bronwyn Fryer warned that ‘a severe worldwide pandemic could cost the global economy up to [US]$2.5 trillion.’ They also warned of the …
In a world filled with think tanks, shrewd minds and an internet, interesting assessments of the geopolitical ramifications of Covid-19 appear almost daily. From Michel Duclos’s observation that the pandemic is ‘a crisis revealing a …
When pandemics strike, world leaders and health responders must adapt quickly to the looming threat. Often the last factor they consider—if it makes their to-do lists at all—is gender. As advocates for the health and …
In this interview, The Strategist’s Brendan Nicholson talks with ASPI’s director of defence and strategy, Michael Shoebridge, about how the Covid-19 crisis will affect the global strategic balance and how the world will be changed …
The Covid-19 crisis has sparked a truly inspiring wave of citizen-led, open-source innovation, from 3D-printed medical devices and open-source designs for personal protective equipment, to virus tests which could allow for more rapid, large-scale testing. …