Australia is witnessing an explosion of blind spot exposures, as important institutions are blindsided by their own shortcomings. The blind spot eruption reveals big organisations with incomplete vision, unable to see key elements of what …
It might sound odd, but interstate behaviour turns out to be something that can be understood by modelling it as a complex system. Our modelling of interstate interactions over a very long timeframe seems to …
The world Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi vanished while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and is thought to have been killed on the premises. The Independent has the details and the …
On 3 October, the secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, received overwhelming support from the party’s central committee for assuming the role of the country’s president, which has been vacant since the …
There’s no doubt US President Donald Trump’s renewed sanctions will hurt Iran, but it is not a given that they will halt its nuclear and missile programs, or its other activities in the region. The …
Bob Moyse’s recent piece for The Strategist raises a number of issues that are vital for the future of Australia’s security. He argues that debates about force structure have, until recently, largely been focused at …
In this podcast we talk to Dr Jonathan Quick, author of The end of epidemics. Lisa Sharland gives us her views on the departure of US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. Danielle Cave and …
I remember a fear strategic thinkers had less than a decade ago was that the US and China would agree between themselves how they would share power and influence, and that they would govern the …
Last month, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) released its Illicit drug data report (IDDR), an annual analysis of drug seizures and arrests. The report’s findings, coupled with data from the ACIC’s national wastewater drug …
The beat US state finds thousands of untested sexual assault kits Officials in Washington state have identified a backlog of more than 6,000 untested sexual assault kits, the oldest dating back to 1982. The state-wide …
Conventional narratives on Canada see the country as a boring, or inconsequential, state, a middle power, but one whose influence is hamstrung by its economic reliance on the United States and whose power is diminished …
Given that our relative wealth and strategic position in the region are diminishing, the aptly named ‘Asian century’ brings with it a challenge: Australia needs to get real, seriously real, on defence spending, especially in …
On 2 September, ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit, the Pentagon announced the cancellation of US$300 million in aid to Pakistan for its alleged failure to take effective action against terrorist networks operating …
In the future, no American ambassador should be assigned to a country where religious feelings are strong unless he or she has a deep understanding of the faiths commonly practiced there … The State Department …
Were fascism to ascend again in Europe, international security would be menaced and the liberal international order be even more imperilled. However, Europe’s current far-right parties fail to meet the minimum fascist criteria. Just as …
Over the weekend, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the 2018 peace prize would be jointly awarded to Dr Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to combat conflict-related sexual violence. In its announcement, …
The recent close encounter between USS Decatur and the Chinese Luyang II–class guided-missile destroyer Lanzhou has attracted much attention in the media. There’s little doubt that the Chinese ship created a dangerous situation in breach …
Sea state The US Navy’s Pacific Fleet has drawn up a plan to conduct freedom-of-navigation exercises involving warships, aircraft and troops next month in response to a Chinese destroyer’s harassment of a US ship near …
Interpol, the world’s pre-eminent international policing organisation, is a busy place at the best of times. Facilitating international police cooperation among its 192 members in a world where crime is increasingly transnational and geopolitical relationships …
Three weeks before Christmas 2001, the energy company Enron went bust. It was the largest bankruptcy in American history. In 2002, Malcolm Gladwell told the story of what went wrong: on the advice of bright …