Intelligence and security
Julian Assange: Some consular cases are more equal than others
The presence at Julian Assange’s final court hearing in Saipan of Australia’s two most senior diplomatic heads of mission – Stephen Smith, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom,…
Assange’s guilty plea “crucial” for many in US intelligence community: James Clapper, former DNI
The settlement reached to resolve the long-running legal saga of Julian Assange has one crucial aspect that, from my standpoint as the serving US Director of National Intelligence…
Quantum of silence
For most people, quantum computers are the stuff of science fiction. Based on shooting microwave photons at “qubits”, quantum computers are estimated to be far more powerful than…
Open sources and the future of spying
Understanding military-industrial production is critically important to the outcome of the Ukraine conflict. Just how many weapons can Russia produce? Making such an assessment…
Spy novels and unicorn hunting
“I wasted time and now time doth waste me.” Shakespeare’s rueful admonition (from Richard II) should nag at all of us who have expended energy on dead ends, red herrings or lost…
ASIO versus the A-team
ASIO Director General Mike Burgess began his 2024 Annual Threat Assessment by heralding the end of business as usual – or “BAU” as he put it.
“If terrorists and spies don’t do…
Decoding good intelligence
For an enterprise funded by the state, the public knows surprisingly little about intelligence activities. This goes far beyond the necessary secrecy of the work involved – but…
Australia needs an open-source intelligence agency
Because people have been spying for most of history, it’s easy to forget that our intelligence bureaucracy was developed primarily to fight the Cold War. After the Cold War the…
Espionage top ten
Australian spooks are not a literary lot. The secret services of Britain and the United States have spawned many spy fiction authors, but we are still waiting for a domestic John…
Contract cheating: How academic dishonesty could endanger national security
Contract cheating – where a third party completes work for a student who then passes it off as their own – poses clear risks to academic integrity worldwide. But there is another…