Professor Desmond Ball AO, a towering figure of issues strategic and defence, passed away on Wednesday after a long illness. While Graeme Dobell will reflect on Des’ enormous impact in his Monday column, a few …
Last month, Australian Secret Intelligence Service Director-General Nick Warner warned that ISIS affiliates are ‘in Australia’s backyard’, posing a growing threat to Australia’s national security. During a rare public appearance in Washington DC, he told …
There’s been a slew of criticism recently of Russian and Saudi bombing of civilian areas during Middle East conflicts. And there’s evidence that the Russian bombing campaign in particular isn’t going out of its way …
Lone wolf attacks are nothing new, but they’ve become more common and increasingly harder to predict over the past 12 months. The threat picture is disparate; some plots show evidence of external direction and coordination, …
The Beat Rampant mortgage fraud in Oz A new UBS survey has revealed the extent of ‘systemic’ mortgage fraud across Australia. Of the 1,228 recent homebuyers surveyed, 28% admitted to misrepresenting information on their mortgage …
Yesterday the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) released its second annual Threat Report (PDF), outlining the cybersecurity challenges Australia faces and further developing Australia’s approach to cyberspace. This year’s ACSC report offers a detailed breakdown …
Yesterday the Australian government (with the PM and three cabinet ministers in attendance) announced that it’s going to split ASC into three separate but still government-owned companies, to ‘support the key capabilities of shipbuilding, submarine …
The Australian Cyber Security Centre released its second annual Threat Report today, providing a useful breakdown of the number and type of cyber incidents that the Centre has dealt with in 2016, and some interesting …
Our thinking about Australia’s strategic geography is being revolutionised. Having historically embraced an Asia-Pacific understanding of our region from the 1970s, many policy-makers and commentators now increasingly imagine an Indo-Pacific future for Australia. Despite this …
The authors of the European Union’s (EU) ambitious Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe – Global Strategy for European Foreign and Security Policy (GSEFSP) must have been aware it was unrealisable. They can’t have …
Sea State The UK announced last week that construction will soon begin on the first vessel of the Successor-class—the Royal Navy’s controversial new nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The Royal Navy awarded BAE Systems over £1.3 …
We’ve recently seen the first jihadist terrorist attack in Manhattan since 9/11, after a bomb injured 29 people in Chelsea and several other devices were found in neighbouring blocks and in New Jersey. But it …
In many Western democracies, this is a year of revolt against elites. The success of the Brexit campaign in Britain, Donald Trump’s unexpected capture of the Republican Party in the United States, and populist parties’ …
On 19 September, Timor-Leste won a minor victory in its ongoing dispute with Australia over rights to resources in the Timor Sea. The UN Conciliation Commission, convened under the Annex V conciliation proceedings of UN …
This year won’t only be remembered by who gets elected to the Oval Office. It’ll also be known as the year the Colombian public rejected a hard-fought peace deal with the leftist guerrilla group, the …
Rodrigo Duterte is a maddening, murderous maverick who’s achieved a weird feat in the South China Sea (SCS)—delivering benefits to both China and the United States. His swing towards China offers Beijing all sorts of …
With 32 days to go we’re rolling, rolling, rolling towards the US election. The read of the week is a reflection on Donald Trump by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. It was Carter (with his …
The United States has lost two asymmetric wars in modern times: one against the Vietcong in Vietnam, and another against terrorist groups in the Middle East. When its defeat became apparent in Vietnam, the US …
Geopolitics is often seen through a telescopic lens: with intense focus in one spot with the rest entirely out of view. That often seems to happen to nations’ relations with China. The US and China …
It seems like every few weeks we hear a report of an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) lost in a crash somewhere in the world. According to The Washington Post’s Drone Crash Database, the US …