A flurry of activity on the cyber-policy front has accompanied the one year anniversary of Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy, which was launched by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on 21 April 2016. The Australian Cyber Security …
Fifteen years ago, a network linking Philippine terrorist groups with counterparts across Southeast Asia and the Middle East was found to be behind the Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Perpetrators found a haven for …
After the United Kingdom’s unexpected vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s unexpected triumph in the US presidential election last year, you might imagine that Europe’s chancelleries have developed detailed contingency plans for …
Plans to rotate a potent 2,500-strong US Marine Air-Ground Task Force through Darwin for six months at a time may fall foul of Australia’s tough biosecurity regulations. A new report by the US Government Accountability …
Tomorrow is Anzac Day, the 102nd anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. The occasion presents us with an opportunity to consider how our history informs our understanding of who we are and what we’ve learned from …
Australia faces an increasingly crowded and complex geopolitical environment in the South Pacific. While the most important external powers in the region have traditionally been Australia, New Zealand, the US and France, which have long …
Future historians might well consider that this current period is a turning point in Australian strategic history. Last month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pointed out that ‘[many] of our assumptions founded on the international rules-based …
The decision of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to end shortwave broadcasts to the South Pacific is a serious blunder, based on a shrinking, insular view of ABC responsibilities. The ABC should be embarrassed that 31 …
Ahoy, readers. First up this week, a look at the curious incident of the lost carrier battle group in the Asia–Pacific. Let’s be clear: this whole episode is whack. President Trump’s claim that the US …
After one of the most tumultuous campaigns in Indonesian history, the incumbent governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) was soundly defeated by former Education Minister and academic, Anies Baswedan, in the second round of …
The French presidential election race has rarely been so tight and so interesting. The four candidates (three men and one woman) who have a real chance of getting through the first round on 23 April …
Imagine that you’re on a quest. You’ve journeyed, wearily, for decades. The bones of your dead horses describe a winding trail in the wilderness behind you. You come at last to a cross-roads, from which …
Japan’s population is set to decline 31%, to 88 million people, by 2065—and that’s good news. Not because a smaller population is necessarily good—although that case can be made—but because the projected drop is an …
The Beat Damning report for Duterte’s drug war Despite a heft of sometimes-baffling domestic support, the Philippine ‘war on drugs’ has been internationally controversial and brutal (look to NYT’s disturbingly visceral photo-feature.) This week, a …
Will French voters have to choose between two extremes at their presidential election? In advance of the first round of voting this weekend, the fear that France will surrender to populism is significant, with far-right …
More than four decades ago, US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger declared 1973 to be ‘The Year of Europe.’ His aim was to highlight the need to modernise the Atlantic relationship and, more specifically, the …
As the recipient of more than US$200 billion worth of Chinese infrastructure and real estate investment, Malaysia is fast becoming the principal ASEAN partner in China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. Malaysia’s need to …
Say I knock on your door and tell you that I’m going to burn your house down. And let’s say you believe I have the capability to do so, making my threat credible. Your first …
Today the Prime Minister will release the first annual review of Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy, which the PM foreshadowed in an op-ed for The Australian. The PM says that his government is ‘pleased with progress’, …
President Erdogan has achieved his long-cherished ambition to be acknowledged as the uncrowned sultan of Turkey. However, his goal has been attained at great cost to the country. Turkey is divided down the middle regarding …