Netizens are in an uproar as a DC Federal Court has come down against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules. Verizon, the lead plaintiff in the case, petitioned for its right to ‘manage’ …
The 2014 Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest in international affairs goes to Margaret Thatcher. Some winners just stand up and demand the prize through sheer force of personality …
Australia has a vital interest in preventing its region, defined as the Indo-Pacific in the 2013 Defence White Paper, from becoming an arena of great power rivalry. This includes between India and China. Developing a …
The last day of 2013 marked more than the close of the year: it signalled the end of one of the most important global sources of publicly-accessible intelligence. Through a low-key notice, the United States …
In his book Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke relates an incident when in 1993 he was attempting to persuade President Clinton to ‘snatch’ a terrorist (a practice nowadays known better by its more formal tag …
Roll out the red carpet and chill the champagne! A truly minor annual moment has arrived: the Madeleine Award for the use of symbol, stunt, prop, gesture or jest in international affairs. This’ll be the …
Welcome back to another wrap-up of suggested reading from the defence and security world. I’m currently in Jakarta so I’ll kick off with some Indonesia news. The Indonesian military is set to get some short-range …
Smart, measured and energetic, Colonel Gilbert Toropo seems a good choice to be Papua New Guinea’s next Defence Force Commander. He’ll need to be. Even the circumstances surrounding the announcement of his selection highlight difficulties …
In January 2012, the Obama administration released a new Defense Strategic Guidance (PDF) that explicitly enunciated the need to re-engage the Asia-Pacific. Two principal questions have since arisen as a result of this reorientation. First, …
Last week I participated in a workshop on ‘Regional Views on Asia’s Multipolar Nuclear Future’ in Singapore, jointly organised by the National Bureau of Asian Research and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. My …
If you weren’t living as a hermit in the desert, you’d have been well aware that 22 November 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. But the wall-to-wall …
This week in cyber, the media is abuzz with news of President Obama’s impending announcement of NSA reforms. Tucked into the Friday news dump, the general consensus is that the January 17 announcement will be …
Last month, the Japanese government released the country’s first National Security Strategy (NSS). For Australia, this strategy is of considerable interest now that Japan’s seen as our ‘best friend in Asia’ and a strong ally. …
With another Defence white paper in the offing, opinions abound on what that document should prescribe for the ADF’s force structure. As always, the challenge is setting a structure that meets Australia’s defence needs without …
The theme of partnership is a growing one in Australian strategic policy. In some ways, it’s a useful qualifier to the emphases placed in an earlier era on ANZUS and self-reliance. And it’s probably not …
Last January, after an extensive period of testing, the British Army announced that their venerable Browning Hi-Power Mk III pistols would be replaced with modern Glock 17 Generation 4 pistols, as a result of hard-won, on-the-ground, …
One of the most curious cabinet papers released on 1 January this year was a submission on ‘Australia–Indonesia relations: prospects and approach’ sponsored by the then Foreign Minister Bill Hayden and discussed in Cabinet on …
Happy New Year! 2014 started off with a bang in the cyber world with FireEye dropping a cool billion+ to scoop up Mandiant. The cyber forensics firm made waves last year after publicising the existence …
Once upon a time, in the early 1970s, the Departments of Defence, Navy, Army, Air Force and Supply employed over 51,000 civilians to support 122,000 military members (comprising 81,000 permanent ADF, 26,000 reservists, 12,000 National …
In part 1 of my post, I observed that the next Defence White Paper (DWP) will build upon its seven predecessors. That post looked inward at the resourcing shortcomings that DWPs generally feature. This post …