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  • 29 Oct 2025
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
    • Nuclear Weapons

    A dynamite film, but a house of cards on nuclear reality

    Thomas Wright
    The new thriller captures nuclear tension brilliantly, but its premise about retaliation timing misses how deterrence works.
  • 29 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Timor-Leste

    Timor’s ASEAN accession: What next?

    Guteriano Neves
    Membership brings promises for growth and regional voice, yet domestic capacity will determine real benefits for citizens.
  • 29 Oct 2025
    • Defence & Security
    • Ukraine

    Military training lessons from Ukraine

    Mick Ryan
    Ukraine has transformed its military training regime in the midst of war. There is much to learn from its experiences.
  • 29 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Trade
    • United States

    ASEAN’s dealmaking with Trump shows promise

    Robert Walker
    The US President is still dictating terms but critical mineral cooperation might give the region a bargaining tool
  • 28 Oct 2025
    • China
    • India

    Is the India–China détente real?

    Shanthie Mariet D’Souza
    Existential differences and longstanding distrust make the current normalisation of relations deeply unstable.
  • 28 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability

    Indonesia values the forests, but can it fund the trees?

    Mohd. Yunus
    Jakarta is buying influence in the new climate order.
  • 28 Oct 2025
    • Asia
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    America shouldn’t pivot to Asia

    Jennifer Kavanagh
    More US military investment in Asia has escalated tensions and isn’t necessary for US or allied interests.
  • 28 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Diplomacy

    The shock of the normal: Australia’s progressive patriotism

    Elliot Stein
    The Albanese playbook on quiet engagement bolsters the country’s reputation for reliability. And that’s good for business.
  • 27 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Climate change
    • Pacific Islands

    Pacific development: The essential local ingredient for sustainability

    Jack Whelan
    Donor agencies are discovering what should have been obvious: Pacific islanders are best placed to solve Pacific problems.
  • 27 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Myanmar
    • Asylum seekers and refugees

    A sham election offers no end to Myanmar’s suffering

    Amy Chew
    For ASEAN, endorsing the junta’s charade would accelerate Myanmar’s descent while destabilising the region.
  • 27 Oct 2025
    • Pacific Islands
    • Bougainville
    • Papua New Guinea

    Bougainville’s independence deadline exposes peace agreement gaps

    Kevin Pullen
    With 2027 looming, unfulfilled provisions and post-referendum delays risk undermining 30 years of peace.
  • 27 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Diplomacy

    Star power as soft power: Australia’s celebrity diplomacy

    Adil Cader
    With a global roll call of stars, Australia could build disaster resilience and environmental credibility.
  • 24 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • United States

    ASEAN summits in 2025: Trump centrality

    Susannah Patton
    The US President’s attendance is prized by ASEAN, even as it poses challenges.
  • 24 Oct 2025
    • India
    • Japan

    Japan’s hawkish turn under Takaichi tests India’s balancing act

    Sanchari Ghosh
    Security convergence with New Delhi looks set to deepen, but nationalist priorities in Tokyo may shift the tone of economic engagement.
  • 24 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia

    Malaysia and Indonesia can turn a border dispute into an opportunity

    Muhammad Farhan Yaumil Ramadhan
    After decades of tension, pragmatic cooperation on energy resources offers a path forward in contested waters.
  • 24 Oct 2025
    • Russia
    • Ukraine

    The partition trap awaiting Ukraine’s territorial settlement

    Mark Pierce
    History is replete with rushed territorial divisions that have left lasting wounds – a warning for those ending the war.
  • 24 Oct 2025
    • International law
    • Sustainability
    • United States

    Critical minerals: The US bid to bypass international rules on deep sea mining

    Bruno Arpi , Donald R Rothwell
    Unilateral mining permits to bypass established multilateral frameworks may be more costly to the world as a whole.
  • 23 Oct 2025
    • North Korea
    • South Korea
    • Defence & Security

    South Korea is on track to become a defence powerhouse

    Nika Pasko
    Seoul is quietly building a reputation as one of the world’s biggest weapons dealers. What’s behind the push?
  • 23 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia

    Prabowo’s first year: Visibility without vision in Indonesian foreign policy

    Virdika Rizky Utama
    The Indonesian President seeks advantage wherever it can be found – but deal-making may cost his country’s influence.
  • 23 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Sex and Gender

    Australia treats gender equality as a foreign policy tool, not a principle

    Jennifer Wittwer , Katrina Lee-Koo
    WPS commitments serve diplomatic ambitions, yet implementation remains inconsistent and under-resourced.
  • 23 Oct 2025
    • India
    • Australia
    • Migration
    • Technology
    • United States

    US foreign worker visas: Where there’s crisis, there’s opportunity

    Aarti Betigeri
    Highly skilled Indian workers will be looking elsewhere after Trump’s visa decision. This could be Australia’s moment.
  • 22 Oct 2025
    • Timor-Leste
    • Australia

    The apology Australia owes Timor-Leste – but won’t deliver

    Gordon Peake
    Both moral and pragmatic cases exist to directly confront stains on the diplomatic record, yet Australia continues to duck, weave and obfuscate.
  • 22 Oct 2025
    • Malaysia
    • North Korea

    A handshake can only reach so far – even in mending ties between North Korea and Malaysia

    Brian Bridges
    Restoring severed diplomatic ties will require patience and creative channels without domestic pressure to act.
  • 22 Oct 2025
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Europe
    • Global Economy
    • Diplomacy
    • The Americas

    Geopolitics and making sense of the NEWS: North, East, West, South

    Abhinandan Kumar
    More than geography, the coordinates of a state are borne of ideology, history and power perceptions.
  • 22 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Australian trade, investment & economy
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Technology

    Can rare earths be Australia’s next mining boom?

    Jenny Bloomfield
    Traditional approaches won’t secure Australia’s critical minerals future – or the geopolitical heft on offer.
  • 21 Oct 2025
    • China
    • Taiwan
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • United States

    What Trump told Albanese about Taiwan matters more than AUKUS

    Sam Roggeveen
    False confidence can breed dangerous assumptions in any US stand-off with China.
  • 21 Oct 2025
    • North Korea
    • European Union

    Europe should back Donald Trump to again engage Kim Jong-un

    Gabriela Bernal
    With North Korean troops fighting Ukraine, the days of treating North Korea as a problem in splendid isolation are over.
  • 21 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Malaysia
    • Thailand
    • Energy
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • Sustainability
    • United States

    The sun is setting on Southeast Asia’s solar exporters

    Robert Walker
    US tariffs are testing whether ASEAN is all talk on regional integration for renewable energy generation.
  • 21 Oct 2025
    • China
    • Europe
    • Global Economy
    • Technology

    What a chipmaker in the Netherlands can tell Australia about its commercial relations with China

    Carolin Kautz
    Commercial disputes with China can escalate quickly – and apparently stable ties can be quickly upended.
  • 20 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • United States

    Time to fill the empty office in Yarralumla

    Hugh Piper
    After 10 months without a US envoy, the Trump-Albanese meeting offers a chance to end the ambassadorial absence.
  • 20 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • Pacific Islands
    • Papua New Guinea

    The Pukpuk Treaty is a defence deal PNG’s youth can prosper from

    Serena Sasingian
    Structured opportunity for PNG’s population matters more than geopolitical debates about this partnership.
  • 20 Oct 2025
    • Russia
    • Ukraine

    Last week was a disaster for Ukraine – and America’s allies

    Mick Ryan
    The mood in Kyiv is fatalistic, despondent about Western illusions yet resolved to learn and fight.
  • 20 Oct 2025
    • AUKUS

    Could Diego Garcia become an “AUKUS Island”?

    Nathaniel England
    A modest Australian presence at the Indian Ocean base would deliver strategic depth and alliance reciprocity at minimal cost.
  • 17 Oct 2025
    • China

    China’s innovation fixation

    Neil Thomas
    The coming plenum will reveal Xi’s economic agenda as security project, not growth program.
  • 17 Oct 2025
    • Trade
    • Climate change
    • United States

    A new multilateral green trade pact is the antidote to growing economic nationalism

    Ryan Mulholland , Natalie Baker
    Linking decarbonisation with trade policy could offer an alternative to rising protectionism.
  • 17 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • China
    • Indonesia
    • Laos
    • Malaysia
    • Myanmar
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam

    Signal failure for China’s railway diplomacy in Southeast Asia

    Grace Stanhope
    As Indonesia renegotiates railway debt with China, other Southeast Asian nations face a cautionary tale about mega-projects.
  • 17 Oct 2025
    • China
    • Australia
    • Energy
    • United States

    Trump wants our rare earths minerals, but we should keep selling to China too

    Stephen Grenville
    With almost “the whole periodic table” on offer, Australia should avoid choosing sides in the US–China minerals tussle.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • United Kingdom

    Australia should heed Britain’s tough choices – and its mistakes

    Hugh Piper
    Development spending prevents conflicts and builds resilience – dismissing it as secondary betrays decades of effective practice.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Australia
    • International law
    • United Nations

    The legal reform needed to match Australia’s global humanitarian promises

    Tom Barber , Naomi Brooks
    Humanitarian workers face danger abroad – and legal uncertainty at home under Australia’s current laws.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Europe
    • Russia
    • Migration

    Europe’s strangest border: Crossing the Saatse Boot, a slice of Russia in Estonia

    Monique Taylor
    When a simple daily drive becomes an exercise in navigating geopolitical rivalry.
  • 16 Oct 2025
    • Aid & Development
    • Sustainability
    • United Nations

    Who will salvage the SDGs as Western donors retreat?

    Sunaina Kumar
    Developing nations can forge new coalitions to champion the 2030 Agenda and fill the leadership void.
  • 15 Oct 2025
    • Afghanistan
    • Terrorism

    The enduring danger of Zawahiri’s vision

    Naveen Khan
    A new biography reveals how the slain al-Qaeda leader created an ideology and infrastructure that outlived him.
  • 15 Oct 2025
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Review

    Is this the Asian Century?

    Sam Roggeveen
    A new book that cuts through hype, ignores moods and intellectual trends, and focuses on the epochal forces shaping the region.
  • 15 Oct 2025
    • India
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security

    Building trust: the real work in Australia-India defence ties

    Teesta Prakash , Grace Corcoran
    Measurable outcomes, not strategic rhetoric, will determine whether bilateral relations prosper.
  • 15 Oct 2025
    • China
    • Malaysia
    • Australia
    • Trade
    • Sustainability
    • Technology
    • United States

    Rare earth showdown: Why the West must learn to pick winners – and partners

    Jersey Lee , Andrew Goledzinowski
    Albanese must convince Trump that only allied cooperation can break China's rare earth chokehold.
  • 14 Oct 2025
    • Russia
    • International law
    • Africa

    Outsourcing war: Holding Russia and its African partners accountable for Wagner’s crimes

    Shannon Bosch
    International law provides clear pathways to attribute Wagner and Africa Corps atrocities to both Russia and the states that hire them.
  • 14 Oct 2025
    • Indonesia
    • North Korea

    Indonesia makes a quiet return to Pyongyang

    Akhmad Hanan
    Jakarta wants to take its bridge-building diplomacy from ASEAN to North Korea.
  • 14 Oct 2025
    • Australia
    • Defence & Security
    • AUKUS

    AUKUS doesn’t need protection from politics

    Daniel Flitton
    Democracy works best when defence debates are transparent.
  • 14 Oct 2025
    • Asean
    • Cambodia
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam

    The other Cambodia border issue ASEAN can’t fix

    Minh Son To
    Vietnam rehabilitated its image everywhere except Cambodia.
  • 13 Oct 2025
    • Japan

    Japan’s “Iron Lady” faces a fractured political landscape

    Tim Hornyak
    Sanae Takaichi’s conservative agenda collides with the realities of coalition government and mounting economic pressures.
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