The failings of the counter-strategies, raised in William Choong’s provocative piece on China’s successful South China Sea strategy, have been evident for quite some time but have been glossed over. The conventional approach to addressing …
The Beat Organised Crime in Australia 2015 The Australian Crime Commission have published their biennial Organised Crime in Australia report. In this year’s report, the ACC mentions the connection between terrorism and organised crime and …
ISIS’ territorial hold represents a different kind of challenge from the amorphous decentralised threat presented by al Qaeda a decade ago. ISIS is vulnerable to an armed invasion of Iraq/Syria by a multinational coalition aiming …
Last week German Bundestag internal servers fell victim to an external hacking attempt. The government is keeping details close to its chest, but a spokesperson for the German Lower House confirmed that the attack had …
Recent reports demonstrate that the online environment is playing an ongoing role in the radicalisation of those joining jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Oliver Bridgeman’s decision to reportedly travel to Syria and fight with …
The ominous shadow of the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) looms over Southeast Asia and Australia, judging from the scores of recent arrests throughout the region. In order to neutralise ISIS, it …
This post has been adapted from a recent ASPI panel discussion ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’. The full video of the event is available here. Notwithstanding the evident abilities of our foreign service officers—and …
The idea that the US may send military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around Chinese claimed islands in the South China Sea is seriously bad. It’s bad because it would involve an …
As the centenary of Anzac Day passes, considerable reflection and reassessment has taken place. Despite changes to the roles Australia and New Zealand play in world affairs, one international relationship has endured—their association with the …
Sea State At last week’s MAST Asia 2015 conference on maritime defence and security technology in Yokohama, it became apparent that Japan’s two largest defence manufacturers—Mitsubishi and Kawasaki—are awaiting the Japanese government’s lead on two …
This post has been adapted from a recent ASPI panel discussion ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’. The full video of the event is available here. To get things back on track, Australia needs to …
In March, the United Nations convened its first ever Chiefs of Defence conference. It was a rare opportunity for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appeal directly to senior military officials from more than 100 countries …
There were no major winners in last week’s 2015 Budget but there was certainly one major loser: us. Though well telegraphed, the Federal Government went ahead with a $1bn cut to the 2015 Australian aid …
A Fiery Cross to Bear: Interactive on #China construction on Fiery Cross Reef – http://t.co/hntlFrNXUW pic.twitter.com/prkO9in464 — AMTI (@AsiaMTI) April 20, 2015 In the past 12 months, China has provoked considerable attention with its reclamation …
This post has been adapted from a recent ASPI panel discussion ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’. The full video of the event is available here. As a born optimist, I share Benjamin Franklin’s sentiment—misquoted …
There have been at least seventy books by individual authors published under the title Gallipoli in as many decades. From the British Poet Laureate John Masefield in 1916 to Australia’s Les Carlyon in 2001 and …
If you missed last night’s ASPI event ‘Australia and Indonesia: getting back on track’, Felicity Norman has a cracking rundown of the main themes on New Mandala here (video of the event to follow shortly). Australia isn’t the only country …
We woke up to media news this morning that US B-1 strategic bombers would be ‘coming to Australia to deter Beijing’s South China Sea ambitions’. This referred to a statement made by US Defence Department …
ISIL is having considerable success in employing public social media platforms for recruitment and propaganda. In Australian cases like Jake Bilardi and Mehmet Biber, we’ve seen the social media component playing a role in the radicalisation and recruitment …
The perennial problem for governments in grappling with cyber security and cyber policy more broadly has been ‘how do we engage the private sector’. Those who spend countless hours trawling through policy documents sigh at …