On 29 and 30 August, Perth played host to the annual Chief of Army Symposium. This year’s edition focused on the innovation and partnerships—with industry, entrepreneurs, end users and investors—necessary to continue to enable an …
The APEC summit in San Francisco this week offers poignant echoes and painful contrasts with the first summit in Seattle 30 years ago. Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation is always ‘four adjectives in search of a noun’, …
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit last week to the People’s Republic of China was a reminder that beyond the metrics of trade and the mechanics of statecraft, the Australia–China relationship carries deep meaning in Australia’s …
So far, the 2020s have been marked by tectonic shifts in both technology and international security. Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, which brought the post–Cold War era to a sudden and violent end, …
The Falepili Union, a security treaty between Australia and Tuvalu announced at the conclusion of last week’s Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting, is a huge leap forward for tackling climate change—the existential security threat for …
The analysis of the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet that flowed from the defence strategic review (DSR) has been presented to the government but no decisions on new capabilities will be announced until 2024. …
During the recent pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests in Sydney and Melbourne, many Australians have demanded an end to the conflict in Gaza, lawfully exercising their freedom of speech. A small number of protestors, however, have …
At the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, world leaders will, for the first time, officially take stock of global progress towards the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement in 2015. …
Only rarely at last week’s Indo-Pacific International Maritime Exposition did defence acquisition officials rise to speak without emphasising the importance of fielding new capabilities at speed. Among those taking this line were the leadership team …
‘[I] want to know more about all of it, and about what we know and what we don’t know.’ — An Australian federal parliamentarian Technology and the digital world are evolving at a blistering pace. …
The hack into the systems of ports operator DP World at the weekend exposes Australia’s high dependence on containerised imports for manufactured goods. Walk into any Bunnings, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, Myers or K-Mart store, and …
Australia is often accused of ‘sea blindness’ and a lack of appreciation of the need for a strong navy to protect our vital maritime trade routes. It was reassuring that last week’s biennial Indo-Pacific exposition …
The crises, conflicts and wars that are currently raging highlight just how profoundly the geopolitical landscape has changed in recent years, as great-power rivalries have again become central to international relations. With the wars in …
On 22 October, two separate collisions took place near Second Thomas Shoal, an underwater feature that an international tribunal in 2016 ruled is part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. A China …
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing in June exposed the scarcity of military-to-military dialogue between China’s People’s Liberation Army and the US military. Stabilising US–China relations to manage competition and avoid conflict …
In 2016, I witnessed DeepMind’s artificial-intelligence model AlphaGo defeat Go champion Lee Sedol in Seoul. That event was a milestone, demonstrating that an AI model could beat one of the world’s greatest Go players, a …
The timing and nature of a negotiated peace, or truce, in Ukraine are the subject of uncertainty and speculation. Adding to the uncertainty is the question of how to sustain peace if it were achieved. …
Sea state A US destroyer and Canadian frigate transited the Taiwan Strait last week in a second joint passage in less than two months. According to US Pacific Command, the event was an ‘unremarkable’, ‘unprovocative’ …
When contemplating various scenarios for how the conflict with Russia might end, Ukraine’s leaders can take clear lessons from Moscow’s brutal military campaign against another one-time Soviet state, Georgia. The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 marked …
A leading business guru of yesteryear once observed that management was ‘doing things right’, while leadership was ‘doing the right things’. But what do you call it when you’re doing both? This is an important …