Imran Khan, cricketer turned politician, will take the oath of office as prime minister of Pakistan on 18 August. Strategic analysts in South Asia and elsewhere have been busy speculating about what this means for the …
After a few false starts, the government has released its promised legislation to address the ‘going dark’ problem caused by encryption—something that affects more than 90% of the data lawfully intercepted by the Australian Federal …
Australia can base its engagement with the South Pacific on strategic, economic, environmental and resource issues, but we’d be much better off building our relationships on something that is both deeper and more appealing: we …
Australia’s deteriorating security outlook, and what it means for our strategic relationships and our defence planning, has been a hot topic of late. Two key articles, by Paul Dibb and Peter Jennings, highlight the growing …
On 31 July, the minister for women, Kelly O’Dwyer, presented the third progress report to parliament on the Australian national action plan on women, peace and security 2012–2018 (NAP). As you’d expect, the government report …
Australia was grasping for soft power long before the term ‘soft power’ was invented. Here’s an official example from 32 years ago: Countries still achieve their international objectives by threat, bribe or persuasion. Australia has …
So, the Australian government has a big decision to make about whether it will allow Huawei to be a provider of Australia’s 5G communications network that will power the internet of things for us. The …
After a week of increased tension that included Saudi Arabia recalling its ambassador to Canada and expelling Canada’s representative in Riyadh—all because of a single tweet—Vox explained the entire diplomatic row. Al-Jazeera claims that what …
The outcome of the recent AUSMIN meeting—the annual gathering of the secretaries of state and defence from the United States and the foreign and defence ministers from Australia—was a signal of the alliance’s increasing focus …
Search for news articles about the face identification service and you won’t find much. At one level, that’s curious because it’s about to usher in a potentially far-reaching change to law enforcement and Australian society. …
Another Zimbabwean election, another Zanu-PF victory, another cry of ‘foul’. And another pile of bodies. The more things change, the more they stay the same in the southern African nation. Or so it seems. As …
The beat Krone laundering in Estonia Danish and Estonian authorities are investigating Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, over allegations of money laundering. The bank’s Estonian branch was allegedly used to launder around 53 billion kroner (US$8.3 billion) …
Over the past year, there’s been a frenzy of public interest—in Australia and beyond—in the Pacific region. The concern has, of course, been focused on China’s growing activities in the Pacific islands. All of the …
The conference rooms scattered through Lockheed Martin Australia’s headquarters in Canberra are each named after high-achieving scientists and other thinkers and doers—and they’re all Australians. That was done deliberately to highlight the fact that the …
US President Donald Trump has been widely criticised for his supposed fawning performance in Helsinki at the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But a minority of commentators have made three countervailing arguments to explain …
The future is certain to present challenges not yet envisaged by police and law enforcement agencies. The fourth industrial revolution is affecting all aspects of society, and is forecast to so radically alter the policing …
By 1 June of this year, US President Donald Trump had made 3,259 false or misleading claims, according to the Washington Post Fact Checker’s database, which tracks and categorises every suspect statement uttered by the …
On 8 August 1918, the British Fourth Army, with French support, attacked astride the Somme River on the Western Front. Germany’s de facto commander-in-chief, General Erich Ludendorff, famously labelled the Amiens offensive, as it is …
Iran, like much of the Middle East and North Africa, faces a future of extreme weather and drought. Researchers have estimated that temperatures across the region are rising twice as fast as the global average. …
Sea state The multinational Rim of the Pacific Exercise concluded this week with an amphibious landing trial. The US was supposed to participate, but was sidelined when two of its biggest warships, USS Bonhomme Richard …