From being a frontrunner in pressing China on the South China Sea disputes, the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking closer relations with China. In his state of the nation address in July last …
Japan’s plans to acquire cruise missiles for its combat aircraft are a step forward in its ability to provide for its own defence. But these weapons won’t give the country the capacity to pre-emptively destroy …
Every year, the World Economic Forum publishes a Global Risks Report, which distills the views of experts and policymakers from around the world. This year, cybersecurity is high on the list of global concerns, as …
What a way to start a year! The debate initiated by three former Australian deputy secretaries of defence—Hugh White, Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith—about the possibility of Australia acquiring nuclear weapons is certainly being noticed …
Sea state France has weighed in on sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, announcing its intention to hold joint military exercises with Japan. Speaking to the Nikkei Asian Review, French defence minister Florence Parley …
The question of foreign interference in Australian politics hasn’t ended with Sam Dastiyari’s political capitulation. The events of 2017 weren’t even the end of the beginning. In the same week as the Dastiyari scandal, a …
In war, there’s a constant to and fro. At times defence dominates, at other times offence. Technologies arise and fall. Disruption rules. This is noticeably so in today’s arcane world of air superiority. While much …
The US National Defense Strategy paper, which was unveiled by Defense Secretary James Mattis on 19 January, is a brutally frank statement of the threats facing America. This is the Pentagon’s first new defence strategy …
Israeli and Arab leaders have spent years warning of the rise of an Iranian-led Shia empire covering much of the Middle East. With Iran now linked to the Mediterranean through a land corridor that extends …
Australia has always been the big fish in our Pacific pond, although we haven’t always lived up to our grand rhetoric of Pacific leadership. In the recent foreign policy white paper, Australia pledged to step …
Australia’s aspiration for the South Pacific must be for the creation of an economic, political and security community. Australia and New Zealand will be central to such a community—and will carry the cost—but much of …
It’s a public holiday here in Australia. Team Strategist will be back on Monday to bring you more considered analysis of Australia’s defence and security issues. Until then, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to …
Last week’s one-day meeting of Australian and Japanese prime ministers in Tokyo will reportedly lead to strengthened bilateral defence ties, supposedly to enhance regional security in the face of ‘North Korean aggression’ and ‘the strategic …
In a public statement on 12 January, President Donald Trump again waived US sanctions against Iran, keeping alive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), at least for now. Trump gave ‘Europeans allies’ 120 days …
Australia and other regional nations must rely more heavily on ASEAN to reduce the dangerous tensions among an increasingly powerful China, Japan, Russia and the US, Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, has warned. In …
The dynamics of Southwest Asia are in many ways distinct from those of neighboring South Asia and the Middle East, although they’re connected to what’s happening both to the east and west of it. The …
Many people believe that the internet of things (IoT) is aimed simply at supplying consumers with connected household devices. However, data from Intel shows that over 75% of devices are used in manufacturing, retail and …
Suddenly and unexpectedly, a small but intense debate has ignited in Australia over an unlikely topic—the wisdom of acquiring an indigenous nuclear weapons arsenal. (Some of the contributions to that debate can be found here, …
One innovation coming out of last decade’s ‘great recession’ was the stress-testing of banks and other financial institutions. The idea was for regulators to posit stresses to see how banks dealt with them. A range …
In December 2017, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its latest report on opium production in Myanmar and, at face value, the news was good. Since 2015, the area of cultivated …