‘I am not afraid’, chanted the crowd that took to the streets in Barcelona after a van was driven into pedestrians on the Las Ramblas promenade, killing at least 14 people and injuring some 130 …
In previous posts I looked at the major structural reforms recommended in the recent intelligence review and at the legislative changes that will be required to implement them. Today I look at the oversight of …
Forty-four years after Australian troops came home from Indochina, the Australian Defence Force will help Vietnam deploy a peacekeeping contingent to South Sudan. During a visit to Hanoi last Friday, Defence Minister Marise Payne agreed …
On Sunday 20 August as the world was coming to grips with the Barcelona terror attacks, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled Australia’s first national strategy for protecting crowded places from terrorism. According to the PM, …
Graeme Dunk’s recent post described challenges to Australia’s submarines in correctly classifying and discriminating between friendly and potential adversary submarines of similar design, such as the Kilo-class submarines operated by Russia, China, Indonesia, India and …
To see Australia’s $2 billion intelligence community, come for a stroll around Canberra’s parliamentary triangle. The expansion of bureaucratic empires is always expressed in concrete and marble, so there’s much to observe. Your tour guide …
It’s been a busy week for editors googling pictures of Terminators (as in the Schwarzenegger variety). The main driver has been reportage on an open letter to the UN, signed by 116 tech industry leaders …
China is a relative new player down south. It joined the Antarctic Treaty in 1983 and the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 2007. A recent ASPI Special Report, China’s expanding …
This week, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute turned 16. Happy birthday! Yet once more this seems a birthday in relative isolation. The institute itself remains keen to communicate, but increasingly I worry that few are …
There are few strategic policy issues as intractable as those appending to North Korea. A war would result in millions of Korean casualties and in the destruction of essential infrastructure, industrial capacity and urban habitation …
The beat ADF training for Tassie police Tasmania’s police special response teams will receive intensive counterterrorism training as part of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s response to the threat of domestic terrorism, which will involve training …
The developing economies of East Asia have enjoyed more than 40 years of growth, except for a brief crisis at the end of the last century. But the single-minded pursuit of economic growth at all …
August has been replete with praise for ASEAN as it celebrates 50 years on the job. It is worth reflecting on the impact ASEAN has had on Australia and its place in our future. First, …
On 23 May 2017, fighting broke out between hundreds of pro–Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Philippine soldiers and police in the city of Marawi in the southern island of Mindanao. As clashes intensified, the Armed …
The proliferation of sensors and data sources available to a modern military like the ADF often swamps the ability of the analyst to find what’s truly relevant in the sea of information. The exponential increase …
Since 1951, the ANZUS Treaty has been the centrepiece of Australian foreign and defence policy. A major factor in the Americans’ decision to agree to the treaty was the contribution to victory made by the …
In recent days, Wilton Park—the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s discussion forum—released a report (PDF) on its June workshop on nuclear deterrence and assurance. The report’s not overly long, but bears a close reading given …
Commentary on ASEAN’s 50th birthday has been largely congratulatory, and deservedly so. Observers have recalled that back in 1967 there were apprehensions about the possible spread of communism further into Southeast Asia, as well as …
Welcome to the brand-new five-domains update! Except, not really—it’s just been expanded. The update now has five sections, covering all the domains of the military operating environment: sea (‘Sea state’), air (‘Flight path’), land (‘Rapid …
There’s more work to do to get Australian businesses—particularly smaller organisations—fully prepared to risk-manage the spectrum of security threats. Many Australian businesses know that, as evidenced in KPMG’s recently released Global CEO Outlook 2017 for …