In this episode, ASPI’s Katja Theodorakis speaks to Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, about Iran’s military power and how the country is investing in asymmetric capabilities. They also …
The way Australia goes to war needs new conventions to give parliament a greater role in the weightiest choice any nation can make. Creating parliamentary customs or conventions is the only realistic way to touch …
In his latest ASPI Strategic Insight paper, Michael Shoebridge identifies the key challenges Australia’s defence strategic review faces. The terms of reference for the review say that its purpose is ‘to consider the priority of …
Germany is emerging from dreamland, and the Green Party, a most unlikely avatar of realism, is leading the way. Forty years ago, the Greens arose out of nowhere with a hard-core ideology: no American nuclear …
Environmental challenges in the Indo-Pacific region’s maritime domain have both ecological and strategic implications, and are at the top of the agenda of challenges faced by many Indo-Pacific states. This was clearly recognised in 2019 …
Political dynamics in South Asia have been garnering fresh attention this year. In Sri Lanka, a severe economic crisis led to widespread protests in April, followed by the departure of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in early …
It’s been interesting to see how the combined impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have reinforced the importance of logistics. It’s prudent, however, to remember that incomplete datasets from the Russian …
Why did the West’s Afghanistan policy fail so spectacularly? Was it doomed from the very beginning, and have any lessons been learned? More to the point, did the end of one 20-year war pave the …
It’s easy to attribute all the problems and changes in Turkey to the whims of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strongman largesse. His foreign-policy adventurism has led to increasing regional and international isolation and a transactional …
Cyber threats to national security and prosperity are today better understood, better prioritised and far better resourced than in decades past. Cyber as a domain, as a threat and as a key opportunity is now …
The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated and impoverished parts of the Middle East. It is also one of the most beleaguered places on earth, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, crushed by an …
The Labor government’s defence strategic review will explore how the Australian military is positioned and enabled to operate in our region as the security environment requires. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the review on 3 …
Little noticed publicly in either Australia or South Korea, Seoul has taken steps in recent months that suggest intent to forge closer strategic links with Canberra. The trend has accelerated under Korea’s new administration and …
The Albanese government is advancing Australia’s Pacific interests by supporting island nations’ efforts to deal with marine plastics pollution. The amount of plastic waste in the oceans is projected to approximately double by 2030 and even …
In the year since the abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban by the US and its allies, the country has gone down precisely the path any logical observer would have predicted: a medieval, jihadist, terrorist-sheltering …
Over the past decade, Australia’s law enforcement community has increasingly taken the driver’s seat in developing new thinking for policing. While that’s likely to be challenged by officials from Dubai to London, Australia’s law enforcement …
Today is the anniversary of the takeover of Kabul, and control of Afghanistan, by Taliban forces. It’s been one year since the end of the 20-year war by UN-mandated US-led coalition forces to install and …
In their first-ever joint speech in London last month, the heads of MI5 and the FBI warned business leaders that one of the biggest threats facing advanced economies is a ‘coordinated campaign on a grand scale’ …
If there was a prize for the most quotable comment on international relations so far in 2022, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar would be in the running. Responding to criticism of his country’s neutral stance …
Australia’s prime minister has the power to launch a war. The almost unfettered right to take the nation into conflict is a stark and simple statement about our system and our history of wars. The …