The Beat Poland amends surveillance legislation Polish president Andrzej Duda has approved new legislation to increase the government’s surveillance powers which will loosen the legal framework on surveillance by law enforcement and expand access to …
Afghanistan has yet again made headlines over the past fortnight, and, as is often the case, not for positive reasons. On 1 February a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up at a police office in …
Reductionism abounds in public policy debates on border security. So discussions of innovation are often limited to debates on new walls or biometric advances, not strategy. Unsurprisingly, industry representatives in this reflexive paradigm present arguments …
Last week, ASPI hosted The China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) for the second ASPI-CICIR 1.5 Track Cyber Dialogue. ASPI welcomed representatives from CICIR, the Cyberspace Administration of China, CNCERT/CC, and the Chinese Ministries …
Our modern navy needs to be increasingly a national enterprise, bringing together the private and public sectors of the economy to deliver a fundamental national objective—security above, on and under the sea. That means Navy …
born Where Australia selects France, it selects enduring geopolitical alignment and surety of supply, a program of technical transfer to deliver sovereignty, a regionally superior capability and interoperability with our allies. I can make those …
The US has conducted another freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea. On 30 January, the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, a naturally formed …
Sea State The US Navy’s fleet of Aegis cruisers and destroyers are set to gain new ship-killing missiles, with US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announcing modifications to the Raytheon Stand SM-6 during an address …
Andrew Shearer was Tony Abbott’s national security adviser. In an article published in mid-January co-authored with US analyst Michael Green, he said that ‘senior US officials and military officers are in no doubt both as …
In 2016 we live in a comparatively peaceful world. No great power is at war with another. Even middle-power conflict is absent: no Iran–Iraq war with chemical weapons being tossed about, for example. Wars can …
The failure of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle that governs relations between China and Hong Kong should concern states in the Asia–Pacific. The erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy undermines pro-unification forces in Taiwan and …
Australian government agencies are seeking to improve cooperation with the private sector to tackle financial crime. Still, much more needs to be done, and simply enhancing existing areas of cooperation is a good place to …
The first rule of alliance management is to understand the ally. For a junior ally, that’s core stuff. Read the great and powerful friend. Find the meanings. Relate domestic trends within the ally to international …
Monday’s Iowa caucuses meant no shortage of analysis for US politics wonks this week. For some choicer pieces, check out Stephen Walt’s unforgiving look at the top five presidential candidates: HRC, The Donald, Cruz, Bernie and …
Beijing’s recent announcement that its new ice breaker, the Haibing 722 海冰 (Sea Ice), had undertaken its maiden voyage patrolling the Bohai Sea is a signal of China’s growing prowess in the polar regions. Haibing 722 …
In an author’s response to a critique of one’s work, perhaps it might seem unusual to start by agreeing with the criticiser! In his review of my monograph Forging Australian Land Power: A Primer, Dr …
The future submarine project is heating up, with the government due to choose from the three competing bidders in a few months’ time. All of the current press attention seems to be focused on the …
The Canberra ministerial adviser—the Minder—was born on 5 December 1972, when Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister. Like much that Whitlam did, the birth was attended by high purpose, low politics and scrambling. The short, tumultuous …
The Beat Predictive policing Interested in how big data can help law enforcement? A new article from City Journal, ‘Big data on the beat’, discusses how technology and big data can anticipate and prevent crime. …
In analysing Japan’s updated space policy, Andrew Davies and Rod Lyon suggest the prospect of Australia joining Japan in greater cooperation on the high frontier. Noting that the broader defence and security relationship with Japan …