In a win for democracy, mass protests in Sri Lanka recently led to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. A strongman who won popularity for overseeing the end of Sri …
‘Brothers and sisters—our region has not faced a more vexing set of circumstances for decades. The triple challenges of climate, Covid and strategic contest will challenge us in new ways. We understand that the security …
Pressure from an increasingly aggressive China and the example of Russia’s war on Ukraine have driven rapid changes in the views of Japan’s people on defence and military cooperation with nations such as Australia. Launching …
Last week, Equatorial Launch Australia sent the third and final NASA rocket into space from Australia’s Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory. The mission marked the first successful suborbital rocket launch from an Australian …
After World War II, global diplomatic efforts sought to create a new international order that would prevent the world from descending into war, chaos and anarchy again. A major part of that project was to …
Northern Australia is becoming increasingly important to the United States and its Indo-Pacific presence. What is less clear for industry, community and state and territory stakeholders is what US–Australia defence cooperation looks like in northern …
In a previous piece, we examined the broad schedule of Australia’s capability transition from conventional submarines to nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs). In planning the transition, we shouldn’t just be focusing on the point when the first …
Washington was the last of the Quad capitals that Richard Marles visited in his opening diplomatic salvo as Australia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister. But, as far as defence matters are concerned, the agenda …
In the wake of the Cold War, as globalisation gathered speed, commentator Thomas Friedman observed that no two countries with a McDonald’s franchise had ever gone to war with each other. This led him to …
As Canberra moves into ever-closer alignment with Tokyo through their ‘special strategic partnership’, it’s timely to examine exactly what the security strategy of our key partner now looks like, and identify ways in which we …
By late 2011, after a decade of effort, ASPI had made its mark with comprehensive long-form publications on defence and security issues. The institute’s senior analysts were assembled to plan an online presence, and The …
The Chinese Communist Party is using social media and disinformation campaigns to project its preferred narratives about Xinjiang and influence unwitting audiences around the globe. Instead of improving its treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic …
Activities in space matter for national security, not least because of the significance of remote-sensing technologies in gathering intelligence and data. Any weaponisation of space presents obvious national security challenges. Continued safe access to space, …
At the recent Quad leaders’ summit in Tokyo, Australia, India, Japan and the US launched the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, an initiative aimed at strengthening maritime security in the region. Apart from one …
US President Joe Biden’s new vision of the Middle East publicised before his recent trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia appears very much like the old visions advanced by his predecessors, with some modifications. His …
The Ukraine war is being fought both on the battlefield and in the broader geopolitical context. And Russia seems to have a chance of winning on both fronts. On the battlefield, Russia’s military machine initially …
Recent events in the Pacific have left Australian officials and analysts searching for policy options that don’t simply double down on Australia’s existing approach to the region. Australia’s comparative foreign policy advantage in the region …
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s fair to say, has already profoundly shaped the global discourse on nuclear weapons. In the deliberations at the inaugural meeting of the states parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition …
US President Joe Biden has framed America’s confrontation with China and Russia as an open-ended contest between democracy and autocracy. If that’s true, an American victory will depend not only on the country’s ability to …
Last week’s meeting of Pacific Islands Forum leaders celebrated the region while confronting deeply familiar regional pressures. The big questions rang out in Fiji as they have since the forum was created 51 years ago. …