Asia
Australia was quick to sanction Moscow. Why not Myanmar?
“Australians always stand up to bullies, and we will be standing up to Russia”, declared Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week, announcing a suite of…
China’s grey zone tactics amount to far more than just laser games
Just after lunchtime Thursday 17 February, China for the first time undertook grey zone actions in the seas close to Australia. There have been many earlier cyber intrusions…
Economic diplomacy: Slow dividends for Australia from ASEAN spending
Wooing the neighbours
The Morrison government has committed almost $700 million to new non-Covid initiatives in Southeast Asia over the past two years, seeking to rebuild…
China and the Ukraine crisis
The 2008 financial crisis accelerated China’s emergence as a global power in ways that Beijing found unsettling. The economic mess in the North Atlantic world thrust the People’s…
The election for the future of the internet
In September this year, UN member states will cast their votes for the next secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). While elections for bureaucratic…
Russia-Ukraine: Lessons for Australia’s defence
Lesson 1: The era of state-on-state conflict is still with us
The idea that war between nations has become an anachronism over the last 40 years has some statistical…
It’s a mistake to allow Myanmar’s junta to appear in Rohingya case
While the military coup in Myanmar has dominated mention of the country in international news over the last 12 months, the slow wheels of international justice for the Muslim…
Courting change for Indonesia’s invisible brides
This month, the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 (AIPJ2) published data on child marriage in Indonesia in collaboration with a number of Indonesian government…
Commentary
There is an economic front line too
National security in Australia usually has a khaki tinge to it. But the fragility of global supply chains and potential for coercion means the economy must be recruited as well…
Okinawa’s vocal anti-US military base movement
In early January this year, US military bases in Okinawa, Japan, were again the subject of criticism after the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was detected among US base personnel and…