Maritime Security
Girt by sea: Redrawing Australia’s mental map
Book Review: Girt by Sea: Re-Imagining Australia’s Security, by Rebecca Strating and Joanne Wallis (La Trobe Press, 2024)
It’s no secret that in recent years, there has…
ASEAN and the military applications of AI
ASEAN's new Guide on AI Governance and Ethics, released earlier this year, marks a milestone as the region's first coordinated effort to manage the risks of artificial…
What should Australia be doing about the South China Sea?
It’s a mark of our turbulent times that China’s dangerous and illegal actions against the Philippines at the Second Thomas Shoal currently only sit in the second tier of…
A wave of US trilaterals sends a clear message to China
After months of speculation, the White House has confirmed the inaugural Trilateral Leaders’ Summit between Japan, the Philippines and the United States. On 11 April, US President…
Mapping the oceans is the new front in the battle for influence in the Indian Ocean
Hydrography, the mapping of bodies of water and surrounding coastal details, is the new front in the battle for influence in the Indian Ocean. There is growing competition among…
Should Japan expand its security partnerships in the Pacific?
This month, Japan hosted defence and security officials from 14 Pacific Island countries and Western allies for the 2nd Japan Pacific Islands Defence Dialogue. The multilateral…
Non-state actors and the phantom of asymmetry
The sunny days of free-riding are receding. In some form or another, most countries have leeched off American power for the last three decades. The preponderance of US military…
A practical way for Australia to help in the western Indian Ocean
Australia’s view of the Indo-Pacific generally stops at Sri Lanka and the southern tip of India. But this regional conceptualisation leaves out the western region of the Indian…
Why big projects fail: Climate change and AUKUS submarines
Book review: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (Penguin Random House, 2023)
We don’t need to look at detailed statistics to know that large-scale…
Japan’s new golden age in Southeast Asia
During his keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a momentous shift in his country’s post-war foreign…