Defence & Security

The strategic order and the nature of conflict are changing. Security competition between nations and military strategy are growing in complexity even as new transnational challenges deepen. The Lowy Institute’s experts in security and defence look at changing strategic relations, security architecture, nuclear strategy, military capabilities and defence and intelligence policy.

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RAAF’s decision on Syria raises more questions than it answers

Yesterday the Australian government announced the RAAF is temporarily ceasing operations over Syria. Although a Defence spokesman told the ABC that ‘force protection was regularly reviewed’, it is hard not to conclude the move was a response to the US downing of a Syrian jet and the subsequent

By Greg Colton

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US-China at sea incidents are likely the new normal

There has been yet another spate of US-China incidents involving US intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) probes in and over China’s bordering seas. In February, there was a close encounter between a US Navy P-3 Orion aircraft and a Chinese surveillance aircraft

By Mark Valencia

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US manoeuvres in the South China Sea are not provocative

Originally published in the Financial Times

By Aaron L Connelly

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AUSMIN: Regional issues deserve top billing

Today’s AUSMIN could hardly be better timed, following recent terrorist attacks, North Korean nuclear provocations, and the weekend’s Shangri-La dialogue. But, as is so often the case with AUSMIN, the danger is the urgent will crowd out the important. Both Australia and the US find it

By Dougal Robinson

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Why Australia should send more military advisers to Afghanistan

Australia has an interesting record on troop commitments over the last two decades. We have committed, withdrawn, and recommitted at an eye-watering rate. One has trouble identifying the overarching strategy that should lie behind such activity. In East Timor, we committed brilliantly at short

By Jim Molan

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US FONOPs: Game on again in the South China Sea

According to this Reuters report, which was soon followed by others citing a Pentagon spokesman, a US Navy warship, the destroyer USS Dewey, has recently sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese-occupied Mischief Reef in the South China Sea. This was the first such challenge to Beijing by the

By Sam Bateman

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Countering China’s submarine operations in South Asia

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Sri Lanka earlier this month, reports emerged that the Sri Lankan government had turned down China's request for a submarine docking in Colombo harbor. Beijing, apparently, wanted one of its submarines (ostensibly on its way to the Gulf of Aden for '

By Abhijit Singh

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How a presidential prerogative can become a national security risk

President Trump’s cavalier approach to handling sensitive intelligence and security matters, revealed by the Washington Post recently, is causing more than ripples both domestically and internationally. His actions appear to be upending conventions and generating enormous concern within the US

By John Blaxland

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The Australian budget and counterterrorism

ASIO, ASIS and the AFP are all expected to receive substantial funding boosts in the federal budget to be handed down tonight. The additional funding for intelligence agencies - some of which will reportedly come from the foreign aid budget - is apparently intended to facilitate 'frontline'

By Clive Williams

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Finding the right balance: Terrorism financing offences, charitable donations and aid

As the humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq worsens, Australians are likely to donate to charities operating in the region. Some of those who give - and some of those they give to - may run the risk of inadvertently breaching laws that have made 'reckless' and indirect funding of terrorism a

By Charlotte Warden, Rodger Shanahan

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Defence & Security

RAAF’s decision on Syria raises more questions than it answers

US-China at sea incidents are likely the new normal

US manoeuvres in the South China Sea are not provocative

AUSMIN: Regional issues deserve top billing

Why Australia should send more military advisers to Afghanistan

US FONOPs: Game on again in the South China Sea

Countering China’s submarine operations in South Asia

How a presidential prerogative can become a national security risk

The Australian budget and counterterrorism

Finding the right balance: Terrorism financing offences, charitable donations and aid

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