The fifth annual Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conference on the South China Sea, held in Washington DC last Wednesday, was a quality event, where knowledgeable experts rubbed shoulders with senior politicians and …
The national counterterrorism blueprint, Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy, released last week by the Council of Australian Governments, has received little attention. This is surprising given the national terrorism public alert level has been high since last …
Some years back, David Rapoport penned one of the more important assessments of modern terrorism, arguing that since about 1880 terrorism has appeared as four distinct ‘waves’ (PDF). Each wave has been dominated by a …
Australia’s nightmare about the US alliance has two versions: home alone or crushed by the embrace. Opposing dreads: Oz abandoned versus Oz abused. For decades, home alone was dominant. Oz would call but Washington would …
Headlining today are details about the nuclear deal signed with Iran. For a thorough overview, listen to CSIS Senior Fellow and Director of the Proliferation and Prevention program Sharon Squassoni on the particulars of the …
After the leaking of a report about the recent failure of an F-35 to win in a dogfight against an F-16D, debate has intensified about the future nature of air to air combat. In a …
Along with the release this week of Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy: Strengthening Our Resilience, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced an overhaul of Australia’s public terror alert system. The changes were agreed at the 40th meeting …
In the absence of significant new reforms by governments—both Federal and State—aimed at expanding opportunity and innovation, the outlook for Australia’s national income growth over the next decade is bleak. The basis for this conclusion …
On Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron unfurled his Government’s five-year strategy to combat extremism in the UK. Cameron argued that there are four key reasons that people are drawn to extremist ideology: extremism can …
Andrew Nikolic, the federal member for Bass and a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, recently argued that we should now ‘regenerate the seeds of community interaction, the known wellspring of …
The Beat AML/CTF laws a safe bet Australia’s financial intelligence agency Austrac has taken legal action against betting giant Tabcorp for noncompliance of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing laws. Austrac describes non-compliance as a potential …
The recent ANU–CSIS paper The ANZUS Alliance in an Ascending Asia is a welcome addition to contemporary thinking on the Australia–US alliance and its prospects over the next couple of decades as China looms ever …
I read MP Dennis Jensen’s article ‘Time to remember the Vietnam air war lesson’ in yesterday’s West Australian with interest. In essence, Dr Jensen paraphrases the US Air Force experience in Vietnam as placing too …
Tony Abbott’s Telecommunications Sector Security Reforms continues to cause angst with major telco and tech firms. The proposed amendments to legislation including the Telecommunications Act and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act would force telcos to …
The venerable Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC is hosting its fifth annual conference on the South China Sea on Wednesday, Australian time. It’s my privilege to be speaking at the conference …
Despite the best efforts of commanders, military operations do result in fatalities and serious injuries. ADF service in Afghanistan since 2001 has sadly resulted in 41 personnel killed in action. A further 262 ADF personnel …
Sea State It’s been an interesting week for anyone following the developments in the South China Sea. US Commander of the Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift took a trip in one of the USN’s newest …
Two weeks ago, Senator Nick Xenophon travelled to Japan to meet with executives from Mitsubishi and Kawasaki, and key Government officials to politely warn them to not rely on the Australian PM’s ‘nod and a …
Acquiring nuclear weapons is a difficult, costly and prolonged process. It’s also dangerous because adversaries will be tempted to strike before you succeed. States that embark on this path do so for what they consider …
Over a decade of securitised transnational approaches to combatting terrorist activity and propaganda have shown that such approaches are ineffective on their own. Sometimes, these ‘hard power’ measures can actually damage efforts to roll back …