Sea State Last week was a big one for Australia’s Future Submarine Program, with Lockheed Martin named as the combat system integrator. The selection came alongside the signing of the first operational contract between Australia …
On 4 October 1991, the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty met in Madrid, Spain to sign the ‘Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty’. The Madrid Protocol, as it’s commonly known, put in place …
International law has had its go at the waters of the South China Sea, and what a magnificent splash. The ruling from The Hague on 12 July was surprisingly definitive. As Mira Rapp-Hooper comments: ‘The …
Hello, readers. We’re enjoying another public holiday in Canberra today, and will be back to our regularly scheduled programming from Tuesday. Until then, catch up with Friday’s ASPI suggests; Rod Lyon on US strategic policy and public …
Clinton and Trump went toe-to-toe this week for the first Presidential debate. 30 minutes in, it looked like Trump was pulling off ‘The Haranguing at Hofstra’, but Clinton soon stepped forward to slay an increasingly …
Earlier this month, North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test—its second this year. Judging by the tremor detected, it was the North’s most powerful nuclear device ever. The question now is how the international …
The 2016 Defence White Paper (DWP16) signals that ‘options to replace the Super Hornets in the late 2020s will be considered in the early 2020s in the light of developments in technology and the strategic …
In the wake of the first presidential debate, we’ve settled into the political trivia season: did Trump have the sniffles? But there are much larger questions at stake. For example, are we about to see …
On 18 September terrorists came across the border from Pakistan, attacked a fortified army base in Indian Kashmir and killed 19 soldiers. While the dilemma India confronts in deciding how to respond hasn’t changed substantially …
The Beat Mexican narco-crime surging The latest data released by the Government of President Enrique Peña Nieto indicates that Mexico’s counter-narcotics strategy is stalling amid declining law enforcement results, rising illicit drug production, and increasing …
In less than 50 days, we will know who the next president of the United States will be. Though Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has a lead in national opinion polls, it’s narrowed to a near-tie, …
The absence of Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama from the recent Pacific Islands Forum’s Leaders’ Meeting in Pohnpei wasn’t a surprise: he hasn’t attended a Forum Leaders’ Meeting since 2007. But taking away the commission …
The Arctic is a region where great power competition will play out in coming years. Russia has significant strategic and economic interests in the region, and for China the Arctic may prove to have important …
‘Strategy’ is one of those words that’s used so widely and in so many different contexts that it often seems to generate confusion. That doesn’t need to be the case, as the nature of …
France strengthened its South Pacific presence during the 47th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) earlier this month, with New Caledonia and French Polynesia becoming full members of the organisation. This double integration, supported by Australia, constitutes …
The Asia–Pacific’s rapid online growth has contributed to its rise as the world’s new economic centre of gravity. With the majority of the world’s internet users now living in the Asia–Pacific, the region abounds with …
At the G20 Hangzhou summit earlier this month, China made clear that Russian president Vladimir Putin was a top guest. Both China and Russia claim that their bilateral relations are the ‘best ever’ and …
Sea State The US Navy will soon have eyes in the sky for much longer than before, having last week approved the commencement of low-rate initial production for the MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). …
The war between Colombia and the FARC rebel group is over. After four years of negotiating, on 26 September in Cartagena both sides shook hands and bid farewell to the longest-running conflict in the western …
In Canberra, the orbits of the economic world and security world are coming closer and their different gravitational fields are reacting as China conundrums confront the coming Foreign and Trade White Paper. The inhabitants of …