Beijing’s great celebration of the Belt and Road Initiative was a lavish display of China’s promise and power. All those nations paying court to Xi Jinping’s celebratory circus confront the conflicting emotions captured by a …
Hidey-ho, readerinos. Here’s a bunch of stuff that’s guided us through the action-packed week stateside: Politico calls in the big guns to grapple with the question of whether we’re approaching constitutional crisis territory; over at …
In their grab for influence and resources, colonial powers drew artificial borders across the Middle East and North Africa, often arbitrarily splitting traditional tribal territories into new states. Clans and families found themselves living in …
Rumours are circulating around Canberra that as the Budget dust settles, the government will again consider the case for an Australian Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This should come as no surprise as Malcolm Turnbull …
Sometimes events move quickly. In December 1998, John Howard wrote to his Indonesian counterpart B.J. Habibie, suggesting that East Timor should vote on self-determination. Fewer than ten months later, Australia was leading a UN sanctioned …
North Korea’s ballistic missile tests are indeed a roller-coaster ride. After a string of failures in its recent ballistic missile testing program, with some missiles failing almost immediately after launch, last Sunday it conducted what …
The Beat First responders fear fentanyl The rising incidence of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic painkiller that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, is changing how first responders in the US conduct their …
On 25 December 2016, the PLAN deployed its Liaoning carrier group beyond the First Island Chain for the first time, in what many considered to be a warning to Taipei after President Tsai Ing-wen’s phone …
The Coalition went to the 2013 election with the promise of ‘no further cuts to Defence spending under a Coalition government’. That lasted until the 2014 Budget, when Defence was hit with a 0.25% increase …
Following last week’s decision by an Indonesian court to jail the former governor of Jakarta—Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok)—for two years for blasphemy, we need to ask ourselves whether Indonesia is heading down the path of …
This week one of the largest ransomware incidents to date, ‘WannaCrypt’ or ‘WannaCry’, affected the operations of at least 300,000 machines worldwide, encrypting and locking victims out until a Bitcoin ransom equivalent to US$300 was …
With Chelsea Manning’s release from prison imminent, following the surprise commutation of her sentence in January by former President Obama, the issue of what happens to Edward Snowden will resurface. Manning was sentenced to jail …
Welcome to The Strategist Six, which provides a glimpse into the thinking of prominent academics, government officials, military officers, reporters and interesting individuals from around the world. 1. The ADF has been on operations overseas almost …
The Australian Defence Force is on the cusp of a revolution as it prepares to reorganise for cyber-enabled warfare. The military cyber shake-up coming many years late brings big problems and some windfall gains. In …
Democrats of all stripes have been celebrating the prospect that the pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron—not the far-right National Front’s Marine Le Pen—will be France’s next president. But while Macron’s victory is good news, it does …
Sea State President Trump has been blowing off steam about the US Navy’s catapults. Apparently, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) on the USS Gerald Ford—‘slated to become the crown jewel of the US Navy’—may …
At last we have the Turnbull government’s naval shipbuilding plan. It claims to be the first such plan, yet the Howard government released one in 2003 and we had a de facto one from the …
Australians need to face reality. There’s no viable defence against ICBMs fitted with nuclear warheads. If North Korea develops this technology it will have the capability to devastate cities in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the …
The Korean peninsula’s deservedly been labelled a ‘flashpoint’ for well over a half a century but flare-ups in tension appear to be happening more frequently. Under the Trump administration, Washington’s seemingly more inclined to allow …
Generations of Australians have been told that the Australian Light Horse Regiments, which distinguished themselves from the Sinai to Syria during the Great War, were not Cavalry. They were Mounted Infantry. Jean Bou, an historian …