The threat spectrum

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’s no place for impunity in cyberspace

Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, spoke at ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the importance of securing democracies against malicious cyber actors. An edited transcript of her speech follows. Two …

Democracies must regulate digital agents of influence

As Australia becomes the latest country to ban the Chinese-owned content platform TikTok from government devices, it would be a mistake to limit the public policy debate to traditional state-on-state espionage or major power rivalry. Such platforms …

Globalisation isn’t over

Late last year, Morris Chang, the legendary founder of Taiwan’s (and the world’s) leading semiconductor producer, proclaimed: ‘Globalisation is almost dead.’ In a world where supply chains have been disrupted by Covid-19 and the deepening …

AUKUS has a people problem

Unless Australia can develop its skilled workforce, it will struggle to acquire the advanced defence capabilities outlined in the AUKUS agreement. The limited pool of skilled workers is a problem affecting many industries and technology …

Plugging the gap in critical technologies

ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue is already on its way to becoming the world’s premier policy summit on critical, emerging, cyber and space technologies. When we wanted to build this dialogue four years ago, not all stakeholders …

Xi Jinping’s idea of world order

By all accounts, Chinese President Xi Jinping has had a successful few weeks. Hot on the heels of the Chinese-brokered restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, he used his recent visit to …