US and China: status quo v revisionist
By Graeme Dobell*
The US is the essential status quo power, led by a revisionist president. China loves the current status quo, while liking how...
Major parties differ on attitude to China
By Alexander Trauth-Goik*
As the Australian Parliament opened for 2018 this week, the major parties began another year of spirited and often combative debate. What continues to be lacking, however, is substantial foreign policy debate. Visible divisions between the major parties over the direction of Australian foreign policy are observable. Most significantly, the Coalition and Labor remain at odds over their perception and approach towards China.
The loss of the cruiser HMAS Sydney
In the latest episode of the Australian Naval History video and podcast series, an expert panel, which includes the ‘shipwreck hunter' David Mearns, discuss...
Super wood made stronger than most metals
Engineers at the University of Maryland have found a way to make wood more than ten times times stronger and tougher than before, creating...
54 years on, Voyager survivor tells his story
After 54 years Alan Hellier tells the story of his escape from Australia’s worst peacetime military disaster – and how he still believes the...
A ‘clever’ Australia needs a larger, more potent navy
By Richard Menhinick*
In an interview in Australian Foreign Affairs, Paul Keating noted that China under Xi Jinping was looking to craft a new form of global governance, rejecting the notion of China as a strategic client of the US. Keating also talked about our need to be clever. He observed that ‘before the Industrial Revolution, China was on the top of the system and had a tributary system of states which bowed and genuflected to them. Let’s hope we’re not going to be bowing and genuflecting.’ He went on to say that ‘self-reliance and self-help should be the keynote of our foreign policy’. In my view, that needs to expand to defence policy as well. Tet 50 years on
Mike Fogarty's reflections on the Tet offensive and the lessons to be learnt from it, 50 years on.
France and America attempted to shape and...
Australia’s strategic risk – a view from the red team
By Bob Moyse*
Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith’s recent ASPI paper, Australia’s management of strategic risk in the new era, is an important strategic piece,...
Rules-based world order under threat
2018 is starting to sound a little like 1984. Not the 1984 of Australia when capital punishment ended, Medicare began, banks were deregulated, and...
Higher collision risks for submarines
Operators of submarines in South-East Asia face much higher risks of collisions than in other parts of the world, a major regional conference has...