- Having interviewed author Todd Harrison, I promised to link to his new CSBA report on the Pentagon's budget outlook. Here's the report.
- Jo Chandler, short-listed for the inaugural Lowy Institute media award, is doing further sterling work in PNG, this time investigating betel nut consumption.
- Satellite photos reveal preparations for new missile launches in North Korea.
- Arms Control Wonk has all the links you need on the Iran-P5-1 nuclear negotiations.
- Europe has entered a Japan-like era of economic malaise.
- The decommissioning of Syria's chemical weapons seems to be going well.
- Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has a long article in the NYRB on the Snowden leaks.
- A sober, balanced Australian perspective on intelligence collection from Daniel Baldino: 'Secrecy is both indispensable and perilous'.
- And on the same subject, former foreign minister Bob Carr was loquacious on Lateline last night:
I don't think people in this country or in the United States or anywhere else should implicitly trust or accept the assurances they're receiving from their security and intelligence agencies. That's why we've got an inspector-general for ASIS, that's why we've got a parliamentary committee charged with an oversight function, that's why we've got guarantees in the legislation which governs our own intelligence agency. The Americans are going to have a vigorous debate about whether their national interest has been compromised by a too-adventurous - too-adventurous activity from intelligence agencies set up, strengthened, strongly resourced after September 11.