The lead-up to Saturday’s meeting between Australia’s defence and foreign affairs ministers and their US counterparts was low key, as were the expectations. But optics and substance are not always perfectly matched with AUSMIN meetings, …
Last month, Canada suddenly announced that it was freezing all ties with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a multilateral lender created by China as an alternative to the World Bank. According to Canada’s finance minister, …
Recent climate negotiations have been heated, to say the least. Beyond the usual recriminations over financing, the choice of Sultan Al Jaber—chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company—as the president of the upcoming United …
A key part of the government’s response to the defence strategic review (DSR) was the establishment of an independent analysis team to examine the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet and to report back to …
In September 2021, the Chinese Communist Party attempted to use the establishment of the AUKUS pact and Australia’s plan for nuclear-powered submarines to undermine the strong ties between Pacific island countries and the three AUKUS …
Myanmar moves from military coup to a civil war that is now a revolution. The junta’s bungled effort to turn the clock back by seizing power in February 2021 has been a bloody fiasco. The …
Commemorations in South Korea yesterday, and elsewhere around the world, marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice at Panmunjom on 27 July 1953. Today, amid the war in Ukraine and …
Great opportunities await the Australian critical minerals industry, according to the Productivity Commission, but it says they are unlikely to include manufacture of end products such as batteries. The commission’s critique of the emerging industry …
Planet A A new report has concluded that the record-high temperatures currently affecting North America and parts of Europe would not have occurred without climate change. The analysis by World Weather Attribution found that Europe’s heatwave …
You may not be interested in artificial intelligence, but it is interested in you. Today, you might have used AI to find the quickest route to a meeting through peak-hour traffic and, while you used …
In a world where two countries can disagree but not come to blows, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this year, a central concept is ‘the word of the moment: “guardrails”’. …
‘Spain is different’ is a phrase that has often been used as a substitute for nuanced analysis of developments in the country. But Spain truly was different in its peaceful transition to democracy after the …
The Japanese government has initiated a new program to provide capacity-building support to foreign militaries. Tokyo’s provision of ‘official security assistance’, or OSA, has the potential to make Japan a more effective and active player …
Winston Churchill once famously described the Soviet Union as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’. Much the same can be said of today’s North Korea, whose leaders are shrouded in mystery and …
AUSMIN 2023 will occur against the backdrop of the largest ever iteration of Exercise Talisman Sabre in Australia’s north. Talisman Sabre, a bilateral exercise between the US and Australia, has long been a symbol of …
The Australia–US Ministerial Meeting (AUSMIN), an annual 2+2 meeting between foreign and defence ministers held nearly without fail since 1985, is referred to officially as ‘the primary forum at which Australia and the United States …
Almost exactly 66 years ago, 22 pre-eminent scientists from 10 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, gathered in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to identify the dangers that nuclear weapons posed and devise peaceful …
Recent strident assertions by former Australian prime minister Paul Keating that NATO has no place in Asia and should limit itself to Europe and the Atlantic and not try to expand into the Asia–Pacific are …
The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of engagement with criminal organisations and proxies to achieve its strategic objectives. This article provides new evidence of the development of a CCP-linked influence-for-hire industry operating in Southeast …
In May, the United States and Australia signed a climate, critical minerals and clean energy transformation compact that establishes a framework for collaboration on climate issues, clean-energy technology and critical-mineral supply chains. It mainly discusses …