This month's links include censorship regarding Liu Xiabo's death on weibo and WeChat, internet use among the North Korean elite and Thailand floating the idea of registration for Facebook users.
This week's links include Australia's warning on UK visa changes, the plight of undocumented workers in the US and data on the Eastern Mediterranean Route.
By proposing that Peter Dutton head a Department of Home Affairs, Malcolm Turnbull has sought to optimise the political benefits of a sound policy decision.
It was always part of the Trump agenda to do something about the North American Free Trade Agreement (‘one of the worst deals ever’) covering the US, Canada and Mexico: the outcome is renegotiation rather than the threatened termination.
The most effective way for the DG ONI to influence agencies and their parent departments would be to have some control over the National Intelligence Community budget.
The CIA program was trying to apply just enough pressure while also accounting for all weapons, even though it didn’t control them: it was too big an ask.
A clean, elected, non-Thaksin Thailand government might be able to walk a narrow path by pursuing more progressive social and economic policy without offending the powerful elites.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.