Daesh continues to rampage, trumpeting its territorial gains and local tactical successes across the Middle East. How mainstream Islam and the West respond to these gains, will determine whether daesh prospers or is rolled back from …
The gargantuan scale of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack, initially thought to have affected 4 million current and former US government workers has now ballooned to over 9 million. The White House announced …
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop addressed Australia’s Regional Summit to Counter Violent Extremism, highlighting the increasing role of women as participants in violent extremism and as important agents in counter-radicalisation strategies. Bishop noted …
With the world awash with strategic challenges—including Chinese building efforts in the South China Sea, Islamic State’s on-the-ground victories in Iraq and Syria, and the difficulties still confronting the Iranian nuclear deal—North Korea probably hasn’t …
The thunder of armour heralded the march of the Immortal Regiment on 9 May in a gratuitous display of Soviet-esque pomp and power. For international audiences, the Victory Day message was clear: Russia stands unbowed …
Sea State The Friday before last, Defence Minister Kevin Andrews announced that the panel overseeing the competitive evaluation process for Australia’s future submarine project will be headed by Professor Donald Winter—a former secretary of the …
The largest and most complex defence procurement program in Australia’s history is now underway—the Future Submarine. It will be unique in a number of dimensions. First, no other submarine will have the equivalent suite of …
Much has been made of the recent release of the report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) into the emerging era of undersea warfare. The wide coverage that the report received in …
We’ve been thinking about the manufacturing sector in Australia in the wrong way. The general perception is that it’s in a terminal decline, which will be realised when the last of the big car …
In a recent oped (PDF) in The Australian I drew attention to China’s distant water fishing fleet; it’s now the world’s largest and is heavily subsidised. China’s rise as a fishing power is linked to …
If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last 25 years, it’s that government can’t successfully run naval dockyards in Australia. This is why the National Commission of Audit recommended the immediate privatisation of ASC. There …
The strategic discussion between the US and China can’t be called a dialogue of the deaf. The talk is loud and each side hears the other. Yet a lot of mishearing is happening. Perhaps the …
Welcome back to another round-up of interesting things to read, listen and watch from the world of defence and security. First up, what should we do if the Islamic State ‘wins’? Live with it, says Stephen …
Last week US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a French interview that the American-led coalition had recorded more than 10,000 deaths of ISIS combatants since fighting against the group commenced last year. …
In the last few months Pakistan’s Government has made a number of decisions that have drawn the country even further into China’s geostrategic orbit. And although China and Pakistan have had a long and fruitful …
In my first post yesterday I set out the case for a radical reappraisal of our alliance with Washington. My argument doesn’t reflect a neutralist or anti-American disposition. Rather it’s an attempt to advocate a …
It seems the 2015 Defence White Paper is only a couple of months away, so the big decisions about capability plans and funding should by now have been nailed down, and the White Paper team …
The Beat FBI and NSW Police combat art crime Members of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and New South Wales Police will meet in Sydney this week to discuss art crime. Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who …
For 64 years the ANZUS alliance has been the holy grail of Australian national security policy—the alliance on which Australia relies in the event of an armed attack which it can’t repel alone. But there …
In what’s believed to be potentially the largest compromise of US government employee information ever, the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was recently breached by hackers. The Department of Homeland Security announced that malicious …