As China and Australia are demonstrating, icy periods between nations are difficult and challenging. Even dangerous. Yet along with the perils of thrills and spills, chills are illuminating. The icy age disrupts the usual rhythms. …
US President Donald Trump lauded the missile strikes by the United States, France and the United Kingdom on Syrian military installations—carried out in retaliation for a chemical-weapon attack allegedly perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad’s regime—as a …
Bruce Hoffman, a premier terrorism scholar, has suggested that there are around 3,000 al-Qaeda members in Indonesia. The number of Daesh supporters, sympathisers and followers remains unknown. That estimate—it’s unclear how Hoffman arrived at his figure—should …
‘He is entirely alone now with his little life of nineteen years, and cries because it leaves him.’ The young man who was crying was German. The man who wrote that was also German. It …
The world Although French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to be on his best behaviour during his visit to Washington, his speech to Congress demonstrated that the Franco–American partnership will undoubtedly be tested. Carnegie offers a …
This is the fifth in our series ‘Australia in Space’ leading up to ASPI’s Building Australia’s Strategy for Space conference in June. In September 2017, the Minister for Education and Science, Senator Simon Birmingham, announced that the Australian …
Under Xi Jinping, China has a grand strategy to reshape the current geopolitical landscape. Xi has set out an integrated and coherent set of ideas about China’s ultimate objectives in the international system, and how …
Australia’s recent Defence white papers have noted that Australian forces have a clear mandate to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), which ‘recognises that security, stability and …
It didn’t take long for incoming Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, to find himself the centre of sharp controversy. Even before his feet are beneath his new desk, Campbell—who endured …
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that he plans to visit China for an ‘informal summit’ with President Xi Jinping is part of a ‘reset’ strategy vis-à-vis Beijing that New Delhi has embarked upon in …
It is good to see Ben Schreer and Nick Bisley set out so clearly the questions that lie unanswered at the heart of Australia’s foreign policy today. They ask whether we’re really serious about defending …
The beat Commemoration day for murder victim The UK Prime Minister has announced 22 April as a national day of commemoration for Stephen Lawrence. Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack in south London in …
Australia, like many countries, provides overseas humanitarian assistance in times of humanitarian crises. As part of DFAT’s humanitarian strategy, Australia transfers money to Australian non-governmental organisations, international humanitarian agencies and UN agencies, which then provide supplies …
North Korean leader Kim Jong‑un seems to be setting the stage for an historic deal with US President Donald Trump that would allow his country, like Myanmar and Vietnam, to reduce its dependence on China …
23 April 2018 marks the centenary of the British raid on the German held ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend on the Belgian coast. This daring assault was only partially successful in its attempt to block …
American military historian Roger Spiller, delivering the keynote speech at the Society for Military History, argued that what Carl von Clausewitz and Hans Delbruck ‘had in mind’ when writing history ‘was not the application of …
In the spring of 1929 a group of British army officers made a study tour of the 1918 Somme battlefields from Villers-Bretonneux, astride the main road westward to Amiens, and then out to the east to the …
Singapore, this year’s ASEAN chair, faces some tough tasks. It must lift confidence in the organisation and inject the inspiration it needs to overcome a ‘midlife crisis’ while encouraging favourable conditions for continued economic growth. …
A flurry of attacks on the Turnbull government’s handling of the Australia–China relationship has captured the media’s attention. First a columnist for the Financial Review on a Fortescue-funded trip to China’s Bo’ao Forum punched out …
Sea state Albayrak Savunma, a Turkish drone manufacturer, says it has developed a ‘mobile naval mine’ capable of destroying any ship. The Wattozz sea mine features two cameras mounted in the eye sockets of its …