News
Payne sensibly says no to Pompeo's coalition of the willing
Marise Payne was right when she said, before heading off for Washington this week, that this year’s annual AUSMIN meeting was set to be the most important in years. It turned out to be very...
It’s one thing to build war fighting capability, it’s another to build industrial capability
Amid fanfare last week at the start of the new financial year the government promised to invest A$270 billion over a decade to upgrade the defence force. It said a side benefit would be a stronger...
Scott Morrison is right: we need to protect ourselves
This week Scott Morrison announced the most important changes to Australia’s defence policy since the end of World War II. Previous military crises in places such as Korea and Vietnam and the...
Russia’s new strategy for nuclear war
Russia has published an official executive order (ukaz) titled ‘Basic principles of state policy of the Russian Federation on nuclear deterrence’. It entered into force on 2 June when it was signed...
Call for papers: Special 'Security Challenges' issue on Geoeconomics
About the journal Security Challenges is Australia’s only peer-reviewed journal focused on security across its many policy domains. The journal reaches a wide audience of government, corporate and...
Common wealth? The state of Australian foreign policy
While there is a diversity of views on Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative agreement with Beijing, there seems to be universal agreement on a solution: the federal government should simply assert its...
Thai domestic politics threatens to derail its diplomacy
Thailand has been a treaty ally of the United States since 1954, but its political direction since 2006 — amid warming strategic ties with Beijing — is placing serious pressure on the alliance....
The illusion of a middle power moment
To be a middle power requires a modest disbelief in power. These states take their medium-sized resources and direct them towards big objectives. This may be reactive, searching for self-preservation...
How does the ‘Pacific’ fit into the ‘Indo-Pacific’?
How does the ‘Pacific’ fit into the ‘Indo-Pacific’? What are the implications of the changing geopolitics of the Pacific Islands for the region and Australia? Does the ‘Blue Pacific’ concept have the...
What Allies Want: Reconsidering Loyalty, Reliability, and Alliance Interdependence
International diplomacy stretches well beyond pleasantries and 30-second media grabs. How one ally perceives and responds to the behaviour of another, can influence significant trade or economic...
