Originally published 31 July 2018. Much of the argument for building warships and submarines in Australia ultimately rests on the rather dubious logic that we’re on an island surrounded by water. But Australia is also …
Originally published 11 July 2018. The free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) isn’t just a new name; it signals an important shift in framing a geostrategic understanding of the consequences of China’s rise. Apart from the …
Originally published 28 February 2018. Some years ago, Christine Leah and I published an article that explored Australian thinking about nuclear weapons and strategy. We argued that for more than six decades Australians had essentially …
‘New authoritarians’ undermine women’s rights The Atlantic has examined how leaders including US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte have manipulated the role and position of women in society …
Editors’ picks for 2018: ‘South Africa in crisis (part 3): failure will impact Africa and the world’
Originally published 3 October 2018. Whether South Africa is teetering or slowly crumbling is moot. But one thing’s clear: the country faces a raft of intersecting crises that it is ill-equipped to solve. And the …
Originally published 9 November 2018. Overnight, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of Australian Brigadier Cheryl Pearce, on promotion to major general, as the next force commander of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus …
Originally published 19 September 2018. With the RAAF’s first two operational joint strike fighters arriving in early December, long-time critics have launched a fresh wave of claims that the aircraft is a disaster. Early in …
Originally published 27 August 2018. Asia’s future is inextricably tied to the Himalayas, the world’s tallest mountain range and the source of the water-stressed continent’s major river systems. Yet reckless national projects are straining the …
Originally published 20 September 2018. The relationship between the Australian and Chinese governments would benefit from a clearer declaration from Australia about what is and is not in our national interest in engaging with the …
Originally published 26 June 2018. Fifteen months ago, I wrote an ASPI Strategist article setting out four scenarios for the future of the Trump administration based on how Trump might handle two driving factors. The …
Originally published 13 July 2018. Last week, Greg Austin wrote in The Strategist that ‘those in Australia advocating for a ban on Huawei in the 5G network—mimicking the opinion of US intelligence chiefs expressed in …
Originally published 26 October 2018. The release earlier this month of a major UN-sponsored scientific report on the significant impacts expected from 1.5°C of global warming—the aspirational limit countries adopted in the Paris climate agreement—generated …
That’s all from The Strategist this year. Starting on Boxing Day, we’ll be republishing some of our favourite posts from 2018. Thank you very much for reading and supporting The Strategist over the past 12 months. We’ll be …
The politics of Brexit is descending into chaos. The European Union is fragmenting into northern, southern, eastern and western tribes. And now the Franco-German marriage at the centre of the European project is in danger …
US President Donald Trump may be mercurial, but he does have a doctrine. As his speech in September at the United Nations General Assembly again confirmed, Trump rejects multilateral institutions and liberal values in favour …
In 2018, we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of … well, almost everything. Brexit, a trade war, a migrant caravan, a Saudi journalist murdered, renewed relations on the Korean peninsula, …
A day after President Donald Trump announced a US troop pullout from Syria, his highly respected defence secretary, James Mattis, announced his resignation. Here The Strategist republishes the full text of General Mattis’s letter to Trump. …
With the year coming to an end and things winding down for the summer break in Australia, it’s worth looking ahead and mentally preparing for a big year. Here’s my take on the events that …
The sharp increase in illicit drug use across Australia should scare us all. Whether it’s from methamphetamine (ice) or, more recently, opioids, the number of people dying across the country has risen dramatically over the …
When he announced his decision to remove the 2,000 US troops in Syria, US President Donald Trump tweeted, ‘We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.’ The …