This year saw the 40th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975 by the governor-general, Sir John Kerr. It also marks the 40th anniversary of an enduring conspiracy theory—that Kerr’s …
Sea State Last week, China’s military carried out war games in the disputed South China Sea, with warships, submarines and fighter jets simulating cruise missile strikes on ships. The warships simulated the defeat of anti-ship …
The Australian Government recently announced plans to invest $26 million in the development of quantum computing technology as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA). Prime Minister Turnbull has argued that NISA is …
Twice now, within the space of a month, the government has signalled an unhealthy submissiveness to its security advisers. The first signal occurred in the National Security Statement. The second swirls through the recent media …
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim state, and because of the previous activities of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) it’s the Southeast Asia country with the most extensive experience of dealing with trans-border jihadist-inspired terrorism. It’s now …
Australia’s coup culture isn’t about generals rolling over politicians and tanks rolling through the streets. The Oz coup culture is concerned with what political party rooms do to unpopular leaders. The willingness of parties to …
Although it took place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars has again been making headlines this week, not only due to the release of The Force Awakens, but also …
President Joko Widodo knows better than anyone that the reason he chose Sudirman Said as mines and energy minister last October wasn’t because of Said’s knowledge of mining and oil and gas but because Widodo …
The NSW Police Force’s revised approach to violent armed offenders represents a necessary alteration of Australian police response tactics. While bladed weapons, homemade explosives, and even cars have featured in jihadist plots during 2015, there …
Exactly one hundred years ago, one of the most remarkable operations in military history occurred at the Dardanelles with the evacuation in December 1915 of 83,000 Australian, New Zealand, British and Indian troops from the …
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has been hearing arguments recently in The Republic of Philippines v The People’s Republic of China case over competing claims in the South China Sea. The …
The Beat Combatting the tobacco trade The US State Department recently released a new report, The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security, in support of the US National Strategy to Combat …
I was thrilled to see that ‘ASPI suggests’ recently made reference to Star Wars—the film series, not the missile defence system—by way of a September 2009 article from The Economist on the lack of counterinsurgency …
The Paris agreement on climate change is a big win for President Obama, particularly given that he’s invested a lot of political capital in this issue, especially in his second term when he no longer …
China’s military activities on its ocean frontier have given rise to a fear that it’s seeking to expand its power at the expense of others now that it has a more powerful navy. The essence …
We’re kicking off this week over the ditch with our Kiwi friends who have been very busy on the cyber policy front. In Auckland last Friday, Communications Minister Amy Adams launched an updated version of …
Several weeks ago, at a border security conference in London, I thought I was going to see something akin to the recent Ukrainian parliament brawl. A British MP and a Migration Watch representative separately declared …
I recently attended a fascinating ASPI forum on developments in the South China Sea. The forum came against the backdrop of the second round of arbitral tribunal hearings at The Hague on the Philippines’ historic …
In his recent post here on The Strategist, Professor Mark Beeson raises a number of questions which, he believes, we usually overlook in our rush to address more immediate policy debates. His central question—from the …
The world is different following adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December. We now have a new orientation for the global economy set by the ambition of governments to put a limit to climate …