National security wrap

The beat Senior police officer charged by Victorian anti-corruption watchdog In Victoria, Commander Stuart Bateson has been suspended after he was charged by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog on three counts of disclosing a restricted matter. …

The year 2025 will be like 2019, only more so

This is an edited version of remarks delivered by ASPI’s executive director at the opening session of ASPI’s ‘War in 2025’ conference this morning. For ASPI’s 2019 conference, ‘War in 2025’, I was asked to …

The winners and the losers in the European project

There was something for everyone in the European elections. The liberals and Greens did well, with voters backing their pan-European visions for the environment, worker health and safety regulation, and human rights. So too did …

Taking Australia’s defence strategy forward

It’s been a while since Australia undertook a fundamental review of its defence strategy. Yet such a review is urgently needed as the rapid deterioration of our strategic outlook overtakes many of the assumptions that …

The five-domains update

Sea state A video of a near collision between a Russian destroyer and US Navy cruiser has been released by the US Navy. It’s unclear where the incident occurred. Russia says the encounter happened in …

Not much dialogue at Shangri-La

The 18th iteration of the Shangri-La Dialogue, the region’s premier defence and security conference, was much anticipated. The Sino-American trade dispute had stepped up with Washington imposing tariffs on a further US$200 billion worth of …

Big yellow taxi departs South Pacific

Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone  — Joni Mitchell, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ The international system is having a Big Yellow Taxi moment, as so elegantly …

We’ll be back tomorrow

It’s the Queen’s Birthday public holiday (even if it’s not her actual birthday) here in Canberra and in most of the rest of Australia. That means we’re taking the day off from normal duties and …

ASPI suggests

The world ‘Asia’s premier defence summit’, the Shangri-La Dialogue, was held last weekend and was attended by defence ministers, government officials and think-tank representatives from across the region. Sam Sachdeva’s Newsroom report captured the highlights …

ASEAN frets about rules and order

Yes to a rules-based system in the Indo-Pacific. But who rules, who writes the rules, and how fares the system? And yes to the reality of a rapidly evolving security order in the Asia–Pacific. But …

Deterrence in cyberspace

Earlier this year, American officials acknowledged that US offensive cyber operations had stopped Russian disruption of the 2018 congressional election. Such operations are rarely discussed, but this time there was commentary about a new offensive …