Last week, Sir John Chilcot’s review revealed that in 2003 the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, committed his country to the US-led invasion of Iraq based on ‘flawed intelligence and assessments’. After the report’s …
While ISIS is clearly a complex thorn in the side of the Turkish government, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a broad range of interconnected problems related to Syria that are destabilising the nation’s security …
Recent reporting that the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 might be soon called off got me thinking about the methodology of search. For my sins, I spent time in operations research in my …
The prospect of huge financial and currency collapses inevitably dominated initial concerns over Britain’s decision to leave the EU. But greater stability now seems likely as world markets adjust to the changed circumstances. More worrying …
A major international conference on the Pacific Islands was held recently by the Centre for Pacific Island Countries Studies in Guangzhou, the capital city of China’s Guangdong province. The conference, devoted solely to a discussion …
Seven years, 12 volumes of evidence, findings, and conclusions, and one executive summary later, the Report of the Iraq Inquiry, more commonly referred to as the Chilcot Report (after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot), is …
Australia does baling wire diplomacy—practical, pragmatic and proudly makeshift. Oz rural tradition decrees a bloke with baling wire can fix a gate or fence or shed or even a tractor. Baling wire diplomacy is adequate …
Welcome back to another week of ASPI suggests, where we’ll kick off with a quick look at some of the debate around FBI chief James Comey’s announcement on Tuesday that the Bureau won’t be recommending …
This election season has been marked by frequent charges of dishonesty. During Britain’s ‘Brexit’ debate, each side charged the other with distorting the truth, though the speed with which the ‘Leave’ camp has been disowning …
President Obama, flanked by his Secretary of Defense—Ashton Carter—and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr.—announced at the White House on Wednesday 6 July his latest—and last—troop adjustment for Afghanistan. …
The first question Chinese officials ask Americans when they come to Beijing these days has little to do with economic policy, or the South China Sea, or the particulars of global instability. They focus on …
It took seven years of painstaking investigation, the examination of approximately 150,000 government documents and a 2.6 million word report extending over 13 separate volumes for a British committee of inquiry headed Sir John Chilcot, …
Digesting the full implications of the United Kingdom’s ‘Brexit’ referendum will take Britain, Europe, and the world a long time. The most profound consequences will, of course, depend on the European Union’s response to the …
The Beat Ice smoking room coming to Sydney Drug law reformers want to open Australia’s first ice smoking room. Australia currently has one supervised injecting facility (SIF) in Sydney, providing a place for drug users …
Obtaining criminal intelligence (CrimInt) from overseas sources, and then disseminating selected assessments, are increasingly important activities for our law enforcement agencies. This importance doesn’t stand alone: it’s driven by Australia’s exposure to the global economic …
Recent tumultuous political events—including Australia’s election—seem likely to produce a troubling set of strategic consequences. Some of those consequences will be reflected in the strategic policies of key individual Western states. But they’re also likely …
Hillary Clinton began her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president as the undisputed favorite, but Bernie Sanders—a self-avowed socialist—proved to be a significant challenge. Donald Trump started his campaign for the Republican nomination as an …
With ASPI’s cyber team flat out like lizards drinking this week, here’s a special edition of the cyber wrap, based on a lecture on cyberwarfare I gave at the ANU earlier this year. As all …
The terror attack at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul on 28 June was by no means an unpredictable development. Indeed, it was the probably inevitable next stage in the deterioration of relations between the government of …
The New Spymasters: inside espionage from the Cold War to global terror, by Stephen Grey Despite the continuing value of intelligence methods like telecommunication interception and satellite imagery, when operating against a shadowy terrorist group—especially …