While the political relationship between Australia and Indonesia is going through a tough time, the close relationship between their two police forces continues. That’s good for Australia and Indonesia because this relationship supports both countries’ …
No doubt by now most Australian readers would have heard that the popular Jakarta governor, Joko Widodo, also known as ‘Jokowi’, is the frontrunner for Indonesia’s upcoming presidential election. His meteoric rise from humble furniture …
It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall at the meeting last Friday between US President Obama and Saudi King Abdullah. With reports emerging that Obama is again considering the possibility …
First up, a haiku on the Internet from the New York Times haiku generator: The Internet is // emotionally a very // flat experience. Many Turkish citizens would agree with that sentiment this week as they found …
The Australian government recently approved the acquisition of a fleet of US Navy Triton surveillance drones to patrol our oceans. Australia has mostly used Israeli drones to date, such as the Herons in Afghanistan. So as …
‘Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.’ François de La Rochefoucauld Documents leaked by Edward Snowden last week appear to show that the National Security Agency (NSA) has secretly tapped into the networks of …
After almost two years as Executive Editor of The Strategist, it’s time for me to hand the reins over to my colleague Rod Lyon. With the team of Natalie Sambhi and Kristy Bryden in place …
The Australian military spends years and effort to create the modern Canberra officer. Like many Defence building efforts, this one is complex with no real end point. With each generation, the requirements expand (and don’t …
Yesterday, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution, proposed by Ukraine and backed by the United States and European Union, to affirm its commitment to Ukraine’s internationally-recognised borders and to dismiss the Crimean referendum …
In an earlier post, I reported on comments I made to the Air Power Studies Conference in Canberra last week (PDF). Today I address the old shibboleth of maintaining a ‘strategic edge’ in airpower capability, …
The Snowden revelations seem to have been the final straw that broke American resolve against the internationalisation of the Internet. After beating back numerous counter-proposals from Russia and China, working tirelessly to keep a restless …
I recently took a look at the ANAO’s audit of the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) program. The report is a solid read at 320 pages, but should be required reading for anyone making decisions about …
Recent events in Crimea have seen a number of commentators (here, here and here) return to the notion that Ukraine made a mistake in the early 1990s by agreeing to give its nuclear weapons back …
‘We cannot afford to be weak at sea … history has shown that whatever power controls the Indian Ocean has, in the first instance, India’s seaborne trade at her mercy, and in the second, India’s …
Over the past two decades, Defence has staggered from one budget crisis to the next, trying to afford the unaffordable. Of the five White Papers issued between 1976 and 2009 for which ex post fact …
‘China’s maritime mastery of the South China Sea appears unstoppable’ proclaimed a DefenseNews article reporting on the current naval stand-off between the Philippines and China. Such thinking feeds into a growing perception among analysts that …
This week on the cyber wrap, it’s good guys versus bad guys as we ask the question: ‘Who are the enemies of the Internet?’ A recent report (PDF) by Reporters without Borders found that dubious …
Australia is starting a four-year journey to mark and ponder the meaning of the centenary of World War I. During those commemorations, the national effort at remembering should also revisit a series of 50-year anniversaries …
In order to understand why Putin invaded Ukraine, we need to attempt to see into the mind of this former KGB colonel. Vladimir Putin believes that the West wants his overthrow—just as occurred in Kiev …
The government looks set to spend somewhere between $8 and $10 billion on F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, which would then constitute the bulk of the RAAF’s air-combat capability for decades to come. The aircraft has …