The potential benefits of increased labour mobility, tackling inequality, deforestation and more.

Haiwingxing’s deployment is further confirmation of both the increasing reach of the PLA-N and of its developing ability to conduct multiple, widely-dispersed operations simultaneously.

FRETILIN has received the largest share of the vote but the PLP could be the party to watch in the future.

Both of those functions were envisaged in the legislation establishing ONA, enacted 40 years ago in 1977, after the seminal report by Justice Hope into the AIC.

The appearance of a Chinese Navy AGI during Talisman Sabre is not all bad news for Canberra’s defence engagement with Beijing. But maintaining the smiles will prove harder in future.

Critically in Canberra power terms, the Director General ONI’s capacity to wrangle the other larger agencies like ASD and ASIS would be boosted.

<p>How the IMF would perform in another crisis, Jokowi's disbanding of Hizbut Tahrir, Macron's diplomatie d'affichage, and more.</p>

Beijing is not just trying to take control of an important body of water. It is trying to take control of East Asia and hopes to use the South China Sea dispute to do that.

<p>The ultimate issue will not be the politics of allocation of agencies to a new portfolio, but the increased effectiveness of the Australian Intelligence Community through the early implementation of these reforms.</p>

The India-China standoff at the Doklam tri-junction area, now in its second month, is the most serious crisis between the two countries in 30 years.

The Home Affairs Ministry announcement was short on detail and unclear in some areas, and the challenge now is to understand how it will work.

Those of us on the line would appreciate some tangible help in holding back the world’s worst nuclear problem; not just empty words and slogans.

This week's links include a look at the US/Australia refugee swap deal, a European guidebook for refugees, and imagining a world without borders.

Australia being a multicultural country does not obligate its parliament to be a multinational legislature.

France's President Emmanuel Macron is striking a pragmatic and self-confident tone in the country's foreign policy.

This week's include more and varied fallout from the PNG election - including some results - and a World Heritage victory for French Polynesia.

The three pillars of the Malay establishment would be much more likely to accept a non-Barisan Nasional government if it is one with Mahathir at the top.

The Jokowi Administration is not the first Southeast Asian government to use name changes to obscure adverse developments on the water in the South China Sea.

The tone of IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa is one of quiet satisfaction. But a different narrative can be told.

The 2017 Intelligence Review was necessary and its recommendations are pertinent and strong.

The Dutton appointment has given an element of domestic political intrigue to the Prime Minister’s announcement.

Social media posts by Chinese people around the world suggest the idea that the West has some role in Liu Xiaobo’s downfall has traction.

We should always be clear-headed about the degree to which it is our interests, rather than shared values, that tie us to states in the Gulf.

Australia may prove to be the test case for a policy solution that has far reaching consequences for privacy, technological development and the future of law enforcement operations.

In three European cities, we've witnessed a variety of reactions to a US president unlike any the world has seen before.

The proposed ban on HTI looks very much like an abuse of state power for political aims.

Prime Minister Sharif has made it clear he wants to fight to the end, whatever the consequences. In such a fluid situation, army intervention can't be ruled out.

A basic income trial in Kenya, the fascinating and lucrative relationship between North Korea and Africa, how the aid system needs to change and more.

The G20 riots in Hamburg have raised a number of pertinent political questions about domestic security and political extremism in Germany.

Australia has punched well below its weight in space for decades.

What to do about North Korea's nuclear weapons program, how the US is ceding its position as leader of the global economic order, PNG's election and more.

Liu was one of thousands of political prisoners in China. Australia should not let his death pass without challenging Beijing on his mistreatment.

If the EAC is an important element in the governance framework, why was its formation left so late?

Malabar 17 comes as China’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean is showing signs of a qualitative shift.

When martial law ended on 15 July, 1987, people began the fraught and intricate task of speaking truths silenced by Taiwan’s coercive state.

Manus Island's transit centre, the shortcomings of Britain's asylum support system, Greek islands at breaking point and more.

In the uproar over Trump’s speech, is it the borders and civilizations that are resented, or the political duties they imply?

While US policy has become more insular this year, other G20 countries are taking less protective new actions than in the recent past.

Voting is over in the PNG elections but the drama of the event continues.

It's likely there was indeed no successful re-entry on the North Korean test, but that should not be immediately interpreted as a setback for the program.

With Battulga now at the helm in Mongolia, the Moscow-Ulaanbaatar relationship looks set to deepen.

We should applaud Brussels’s tentative attempts to provide some de facto global rules for technology giants in these new areas of market power.

Vietnam regards naval activity by larger nations like India and the US in the area as a useful deterrent against China.

The North Korean ballistic missile threat is both more intractable, but also less dramatic, than calls for an Australian national missile defence suggest.

Let's imagine that the US and its allies were determined to prevent North Korea achieving its nuclear force ambitions. What could be done?

The UN's nuclear weapon ban is a landmark treaty, but there are some serious problems with the text.

The G19 have effectively acted as a counterweight to the stated agenda of protectionism and bilateralism being pursued by President Trump.

The upcoming China-Russia naval exercise suggests an emerging alignment on China’s behaviour in the South China Sea and Russia’s approach to security in the Baltic.

This week's links also include EconTalk podcasts featuring Lant Pritchett and Chris Blattman while Duncan Green's advice to academics creates a stir.

European leaders probably recognise that US presidents are usually difficult on trade issues, and for all his efforts Trump has yet to prove himself more unsatisfactory than his predecessors.