What China’s coercion at sea means for India

Two events in recent weeks have refocused attention on the South China Sea. First, Malaysia approached the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf claiming waters beyond the 200-kilometre limit of its exclusive …

Trump’s transactional myopia

US President Donald Trump’s attacks on unfair Chinese trade and technology policies may have been justified, but his tactics have damaged the alliances and institutions on which the United States depends. Will the short-term gains …

The UN must take the lead in Kashmir

After more than 70 years of terror, killings, torture and disappearances, the international community must renew its efforts to end the conflict in Kashmir. In 2018 and 2019, the Office of the United Nations High …

China and nuclear restraint

China increasingly finds itself depicted as the bête noire of nuclear arms control. The US government has said the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty collapsed because of Chinese actions outside the treaty and not merely Russian …

It’s not too late to save liberal democracy

In 1992, Francis Fukuyama’s The end of history and the last man declared liberal democracy and capitalism to be the pre-eminent systems of government and the pinnacle of social evolution. This was it. Liberal democracy …

Big Ben tolls a warning for Australia

Brexit! Brexit? Brexit!&#£? Here is proof of an old Yiddish curse: ‘May you get what you wish for.’ Britain has got its wish: it left the European Union on 31 January. The hard part starts …

ASPI suggests

Welcome to our first ‘ASPI suggests’ for 2020. There’s a lot of reading to catch up on, so let’s dive right in. The world The Middle East remains embroiled in conflict and instability. A report …