Sometimes, says former defence minister Brendan Nelson, ministers must make decisions that run contrary to the advice they receive from their departments. That’s why his concerns about delays in developing the F-35 joint strike fighter …
Owners and operators of Australia’s critical infrastructure will soon be turning their minds to the annual reporting required under the government’s new risk-management program. For many, this will be a new obligation under the amended …
Critical minerals are vital components in today’s rapidly growing clean-energy industry. They’re used in advanced technologies like electric vehicles and batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, fibre-optic cables and semiconductor chips. But the supply chain for …
The policy bottlenecks that many people thought would impede Germany’s Ampelkoalition (‘traffic-light coalition’) have materialised, well into its second year in power. The country’s first three-party government since the 1950s, comprising the Social Democrats, the …
The president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, after visiting Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies in Latin America, made a ‘stopover’ last week in California, where she met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Beijing responded with …
James Bond first appeared 70 years ago today, playing roulette at three o’clock in the morning, in former British naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming’s debut novel, Casino Royale. Rejected by three US publishers, the book …
Sea state The 2023 edition of Exercise Tasman Shield, held from 17 March to 3 April, brought together aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force and ships from the Royal Australian Navy to practise integrated …
The stern warnings issued by China ahead of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s tour of the United States and Central America have highlighted the threat that intensifying Chinese pressure poses to the island’s security and stability. …
Cold wars don’t begin with a starting pistol. They grind into action. We are no longer waiting for one. We are there. The problem is that cold wars are either interspersed with hot ones or …
The carefully staged AUKUS plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) will build increased deterrence as each phase is completed, says former Royal Australian Navy chief Tim Barrett. ‘I think the way it’s been …
‘There’s been lots of recent shouting about Australia’s national security policy,’ Matthew Sussex wrote recently in The Conversation. Indeed, the clamour reached astounding, almost dizzying heights following the AUKUS announcement last month. Sussex is right …
Critical minerals are the bedrock of the global economy, and they are crucial to the advanced capabilities relied on by the world’s top militaries. Metals like copper, nickel and cobalt are ubiquitous in the mechanised …
The strategic landscape of the Middle East is changing rapidly, but not in favour of the United States as the traditional powerful actor in the region. Continued adversarial US–Iranian relations and regional Arab states’ growing …
The upper estimate of $368 billion for Australia’s acquisition of eight nuclear-powered submarines is an impossibly large number. Stacked in $100 bills, each 0.14 millimetre thick, the pile would rise to about 500 kilometres. You …
The Northern Territory has the critical minerals our nation, and the world, need—and the NT government is working hard to support their exploration and development. The mining sector provides significant economic contributions and employment opportunities, …
By building up the notion of the Indo-Pacific as a critical region, Shinzo Abe, the late Japanese prime minister, created a strategic framework that presaged the geopolitical and economic integration now taking place across Asia …
Ukraine has been forced into a high-intensity war where its freedom and national survival are at stake. To fight back and be able to push out the Russian invader, Ukraine needs not just political support …
When Finland cleared the last hurdle for NATO membership last week, major Western newspapers buried the story. Yet Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto justly celebrated ‘these historic days’—the end of 75 years of neutrality. As of …
Planet A Updates to Australia’s emissions reduction ‘safeguard mechanism’ will limit new gas and coal investments while hard-capping total greenhouse gas emissions. The initiative, which comes into effect on 1 July, targets 215 major polluting …
There are about 830 million Indians connected to the internet today. There will be almost 1.3 billion Indians connected to the internet by 2025, making India one of the most connected nations in the world …