Originally published on 26 May 2023. The defence strategic review highlighted the need for the Royal Australian Navy to have two levels of surface combatants to provide ‘increased strike, air defence, presence operations and anti-submarine …
Originally published on 18 December 2023. The world is less stable and less predictable than it has been in generations, marked by profound and disruptive change, with the unsettling promise of more to come. The …
Originally published on 14 December 2023. Urgency is mounting for Australia to reintroduce the national security strategy into its strategic arsenal and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent visits to the United States and China present …
Originally published on 16 May 2023. Media freedom is an essential pillar of democracy. In Pacific island countries, this pillar is under threat from financial and capacity constraints. Democratic partners—which believe in the importance of …
Originally published on 7 November 2023. In September 2014, a RAAF E-7A Wedgetail early warning and control aircraft arrived in the Middle East to join the war against the Islamic State terror group. Soon after …
Originally published on 26 October 2023. A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail early warning aircraft will use its highly effective radar system to search for missiles launched from hundreds of kilometers inside Russia and …
Originally published on 9 February 2023. In March, the government is expected to announce its plans to implement the ambitious proposal for an Australian force of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) that is at the heart of …
The advantage historians have over journalists is that the passage of time offers them a perspective not available to those with immediate deadlines. But the year is about to end, which constitutes a firm deadline …
As 2023 draws to a close, how should we assess progress on the government’s stated objective of ‘stabilisation’ in Australia–China relations? On the face of it, the Australian government has built significant momentum this year …
As the strategic environment continues to darken, the defence force built by Australia in the decades after the Vietnam War is being completely reconfigured. Long gone is the reliance on light infantry combat capabilities that …
There’s growing awareness that Australia’s international development program is one of the tools of national power that Australia can use to shape the world around it. The danger is that if ‘influence’ becomes an unstated …
Houthi forces based in Yemen are engaged in what resembles an unhinged, turbocharged form of piracy in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where disruption and destruction have supplanted the traditional motivation of material …
After 40 years of reform experimentation that has seriously weakened the Australian Defence Force, it’s time for the government to bring the defence bureaucracy back onto the rails. Australians are becoming increasingly anxious about Australia’s …
Last week, in a major political victory for embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the European Council decided to open accession talks with his country. According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, it was …
China’s high youth unemployment rate and increasingly disillusioned young people—many of whom are ‘giving up’ on work—have attracted much attention from global media outlets and Chinese policymakers. The standard narrative is to associate the problem …
The 2023 defence strategic review noted that Australia’s economy had become more interconnected with the Indo-Pacific and the world, and that brought a fundamental interest in protecting the rules-based order upon which international trade depends. …
After 40 years in national security in Australia, I find myself agreeing with Danielle Cave’s view that the national security architecture is not quite right and merits fixing. I also agree that there’s a need …
The AUKUS pact promises to provide Australia with the first of its nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) in the 2030s. But how will those boats, and the AUKUS SSNs to be delivered in the 2040s, fare in …
In his annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that he will be ready for a peace settlement with Ukraine only after he has achieved his goals, which haven’t changed since he …
As the Israel–Hamas war rages, the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza is grabbing headlines—as well it should. But another armed conflict, in Myanmar, is also causing mass suffering, with more than two million people internally …