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Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Peter Layton. 21 January 2022. Over the last several years, the relationship with China has become increasingly awkward for both Australia and ... more ...

The Alliance Is Too Big—and Too Provocative—for Its Own Good Foreign Affairs. Michael Kimmage. 17 January, 2022 The NATO alliance is ill suited to twenty-first-century Europe. This is not because Russian President Vladimir Putin says it ... more ...

The Australian. Peter Jennings. 21 January 2022. As Defence’s deputy secretary for strategy between 2009 and 2012, I asked US counterparts on three occasions about the likelihood they would share submarine ... more ...

Does America Have More Rivals Than It Can Handle? Foreign Affairs. Hal Brands. 18 January, 2022 The first year of Joe Biden’s presidency ended as it began, with the United States facing crises on multiple ... more ...

A Honolulu couple and their family provided the admiral with a peaceful respite as he wrestled with the stress of war and command. Proceedings. Captain Michael A. Lilly, U.S. Navy (Retired). January 2022 ... more ...

Ukraine and Kazakhstan become test cases for an old idea as a new reality Nikkei Asia. EIJI Furukawa Contributing writer. 19 January, 2022 KYIV – On Ukraine’s eastern ... more ...

The Strategist. Charles Edel.13 Jan 2022. September was a dizzying month in Australian foreign policy, especially in the Australian–American relationship. In quick succession were the 70th anniversary of ANZUS, the announcement of the new AUKUS defence partnership, the annual AUSMIN consultations and the Quad’s ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. David Brewster. 10 January 2022. Like Australia in the Pacific, India has been pursuing its own Indian Ocean island step-up, largely driven by concerns about China’s ... more ...

Wang Yi’s visits to the Maldives and Sri Lanka signal Beijing’s priorities fairly clearly: it’s focusing on South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The Diplomat. Mohamed Zeeshan. 10 January, 2022 ... more ...

Dive beneath the surface of our seas and it’s as though the Cold War never really ended The Telegraph. Dominic Nicholls. 8 January 2022\ ... more ...

The Ukraine situation reminds this Cold War historian of the Berlin crisis of 1958-61. Wall Street Journal. Adam O’Neal. 7 January, 2022 This year dawned, 30 years after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, amid shades of the Cold War. Russian paratroopers deployed to Kazakhstan this ... more ...

War on the Rocks. Jeffrey W. Hornung, 5 January 2022 The message from U.S. senior military leaders has been very clear recently: They are very, very worried about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. For example, retired U.S. Indo-Pacific Command commander Adm. Phil Davidson, his ... more ...

War On The Rocks. Pierre Morcos. 4 January, 2022 The September announcement of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States security partnership (commonly known as AUKUS) shined a multi-billion dollar, nuclear-powered spotlight on the divergence between French and American approaches to China. The French government saw AUKUS ... more ...

The Australian. Peter Jennings. 5 January 2022. One of the strengths in Australia’s relationship with Japan is our shared ability to deliver substance as opposed to verbal bombast unmoored to practical outcomes. Australia claims to have strategic partnerships with many countries, usually ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 4 Jan 2022. Peter Jennings. As 2021 dragged to an exhausting end, the international strategic outlook remained bleak. Authoritarian regimes are threatening conflict in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The key democracies look distracted, internally riven and unwilling to defend ... more ...

The Australian. Nina L. Khrushcheva. 4 January 2022. With thousands of Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s border, the announcement that Russia and the US soon will hold security talks is undoubtedly welcome. While a de-escalation of tensions is hardly guaranteed, it is a lot ... more ...

Joint military exercises and technology sharing are seen as tools in to limit U.S. might abroad Wall Street Journal. Brett Forrest (Washington), Ann M. Simmons (Moscow) and Chao Deng (Taipei) Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping oversaw an ambitious joint military exercise in China this summer, which ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 24 Dec 2021 Brendan Nicholson. Former defence minister Kim Beazley has delivered a sobering comparison between how Australia dealt with the lead-up to World War II and the complex and deteriorating strategic situation it faces ... more ...

War on the Rocks. Jonathan Panter and Johnathan Falcone. 28 December 2021. Two subjects are nearly inescapable in commentary about the U.S. Navy today. The first is the much-maligned, 15-year saga of the littoral combat ship (LCS), which has provided an unfortunate case study ... more ...

Things will begin to heat up in two key dimensions Nikkei Asia. James Stavridis. 26 December, 2021 ... more ...

Something about the new Australia, UK and US deal suggests it could detract from the value and usefulness of the Quad. The Interpreter. Abhijit Singh. 22 December 2021. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 22 Dec 2021 Michael Shoebridge. Australia is ending the year in much better shape than we ended 2020. That’s so even though our region is still a dangerous place, and an aggressive China under Xi ... more ...

But Beijing expected to choose cautiously to avoid political risks Nikkei Asia. Ryo Nakamura, Ken Moriyasu and Tsukasa Hadano. 22 December, 2021 WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/ BEIJING – China is reportedly looking to build ... more ...

A Conflict Would Be Long and Messy Foreign Affairs. Hal Brands and Michael Beckley. 16 December, 2021 he United States is getting serious about the threat of war with China. The U.S. ... more ...

Recent military exercises with ASEAN a Russian foreign policy milestone Nikkei Asia. Danil Bochkov. 20 December, 2021 ... more ...

What I said then, and what I think now, about the nuclear- powered subs announcement that caught everyone by surprise. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 13 December 2021. ... more ...

But U.S. Power Faces Threats at Home. The Lowy Institute. Michael Fullilove, Hervé Lemahieu. 7 December 2021. Time and momentum are on our side,” declared Chinese President Xi Jinping in January. But developments this year have not borne out Xi’s confidence about China’s inexorable ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 14 Dec 2021 Sam Goldsmith. The threat spectrum for surface combatants—ships that can engage air, surface, subsurface and shore targets—is rapidly expanding and increasingly lethal. Threats include mines, torpedoes, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and swarms ... more ...

The dangers of NATO’s Ukrainian policy Spectator. Owen Matthews. 11 December 2021. Over the last nine weeks Vladimir Putin has moved more than 90,000 troops to the borders of Ukraine and, according to US intelligence, ordered his military planners to draw up detailed blueprints ... more ...

Biden Must Make America’s Commitment Clear to China—and the World Foreign Affairs. Richard Haass and David Sacks. 13 December, 2021. Over the past year, the questions of whether China will forcibly move against Taiwan and how ... more ...

Nikkei Asia. Hiroyuki Akita. 10 December, 2021. TOKYO – MI6, the U.K.’s foreign intelligence service that cinema ... more ...

The Australian, Editorial. 12 December 2021. Defence Minister Peter Dutton is correct when he says China’s angry reaction to the AUKUS security alliance between Australia, the US and Britain, including threats of retribution, is “irrational” in view of Beijing’s own military expansion. In September, China claimed AUKUS would trigger a ... more ...

Most indigenous Kanaks favour a split, but European residents tend to favour status quo Nikkei Asia. Michael Field. 7 December 2021. ... more ...

China strategy dominated New Zealand’s foreign policy year, but the government has yet to find a consistent position. The Diplomat. Geoffrey Miller. 11 December, 2021. Ambiguity and contradiction over China have been hallmarks of New Zealand’s foreign policy throughout 2021. In this respect, the ... more ...

How does it connect to the Quad, the Sydney Dialogue, ASEAN and Indo-Pacific security? ASPI Strategic Insights. Michael Shoebridge. 8 December 2021. Why did AUKUS happen? Because the world changed. The Australia–UK–US partnership announced by US President ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 9 Dec 2021. Paul Dibb. This month marks 30 years since the USSR collapsed voluntarily. It’s rare in world history that such a militarily powerful empire disappears without going to war. The Soviet Union had 12,000 strategic nuclear warheads, 260 divisions ... more ...

The forward presence mission is taking a toll on the fleet and the force. USN Proceedings. The Honorable Robert O. Work. December 2021. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 2 Dec 2021 Anastasia Kapetas. In the debate about what AUKUS is and what it might become, much has been made of the idea that in an era of heightened geopolitical competition, Australia possesses some ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 29 Nov 2021.Richard Herr and Aziz Mohammed. Karl Marx claimed, ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce’, suggesting that failing to learn from experience tells something about those in power. At the first repeat, all the ensuing misfortunes are ... more ...

Japan and U.S. struggle to put fraught history to rest Nikkei Asia. Naoya Yoshino. 1 December 2021. TOKYO – Dec. 7 marks the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attack, which came on ... more ...

The Australian. Greg Sheridan. 2 December 2021. Two announcements illustrate, and exacerbate, the extreme contradiction at the heart of all Australian defence policy. The US will increase the troop numbers it rotates through northern Australia, as well as ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 25 Nov 2021. Sam Goldsmith. Picking the right design for the Royal Australian Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines is extraordinarily complex and difficult choices will need to be made. There are two contenders, the Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarine and the US Navy’s Virginia-class ... more ...

USNI Proceedings. Norman Friedman. November 2021 In September, the Australian government announced ... more ...

Learning the Right Lessons of the Past Foreign Affairs. Li Chen and Odd Arne Westad. 29 November, 2021 In February 1961, at the outset of his presidency, John F. Kennedy wrote a personal letter to the Soviet ... more ...

“The future is extremely bright for this line of research.” Task&Purpose. David Roza. 24 November, 2021. ... more ...

Resentment against Chinese business people is longstanding and has fuelled violence in Honiara’s Chinatown. The Diplomat. Rod McGuirk. 26 November 2021. The Solomon Islands’ decision to switch its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing has been blamed for arson ... more ...

Deep sea drones are revolutionising marine science. But the military potential makes transparency essential. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. 23 November 2021. According to the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative, between 2018 and January ... more ...

Can an American-Led Coalition Prevent the Next War? Foreign Affairs. Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr. 17 November, 2021 For many of the last 30 years, the notion that the United States was locked in direct contest with other great powers seemed as outdated as the Cold War itself. Instead, successive U.S. ... more ...

The Australian. Hugh White. 22 November 2021. The question no longer seems hypothetical. Last year the Prime Minister compared the dangers today to those of the late ... more ...

Brussels Should Borrow and Spend More on Security Foreign Affairs. Max Bergmann and Benjamin Haddad. 18 November 2021. Security and defense are suddenly back on Europe’s agenda. The United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan—which ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. John Garrick. 12 Nov 2021. The Antarctic Treaty System, which has governed affairs in Antarctica since 1961, is struggling under the weight of great-power competition. Through gaps in governance frameworks, states are exploiting the treaty and its subordinate protocols to pursue ... more ...

How Beijing’s Nuclear Buildup Threatens Stability Foreign Affairs. Abraham Denmark and Caitlin Talmadge. 19 November, 2021. Recent weeks have seen an explosion of worry in the United States about China’s nuclear program. A Pentagon report released in early November ... more ...

Is Beijing Building a Rival Alliance System? Foreign Affairs. Patricia M. Kim. 15 November, 2021 The United States’ network of alliances has long been a central pillar of its foreign policy—and, as competition with ... more ...

Quadrant. John O’Sullivan (Editor, International). 11 November 2021. When I first heard the announcement of AUKUS, I wondered idly if this apparently bold initiative was a rapidly-put-together response to the shambles of America’s Afghan withdrawal to demonstrate that the US retained its capacity for ... more ...

Navy Lookout. 11 November 2021. The political and strategic ramifications of the AUKUS pact announced in September continue to reverberate but the details of how Australia will actually acquire nuclear-powered submarines have been rather overlooked. Here we focus on the daunting technical, industrial and ... more ...

A Pentagon report projects a 460-ship Chinese fleet by the 2030s. The Diplomat. Steven Stashwick. 09 November, 2021. U.S. ... more ...

THE LOWY INSTITUTE. Gatra Priyandita & Ben Herscovitch. 8 Nov 2021. Amid Jakarta’s diplomatic shots across Canberra’s bow over AUKUS, ... more ...

Adani’s multimillion-dollar investment in Colombo not only makes commercial sense, it’s a strategic game-changer, too. The Lowy Institute. Chulanee Attanayake. 9 November 2021. On 30 September, Adani Group, India’s largest private port operator, signed what has been reported as a US$700 million agreement to build ... more ...

Australian Institute of International Affairs. Shaun Cameron. 3 November 2021. Climate change has allowed for new energy resources and trade routes to be exploited in the Arctic. This has resulted in growing great power competition between the US, Russia, and China in the region. ... more ...

USNI Proceedings. Trent Hone. November 2021 To execute flexible deterrence and limited war, options must range from diplomacy to military power—necessitating command of the seas. ... more ...

Defense News. Lyle Goldstein. 30 October 2021 ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 2 Nov 2021. Marcus Hellyer. Serious risks are being realised in the Royal Australian Navy’s twin transitions in its surface combatant and submarine fleets. As Australia’s strategic circumstances become more dangerous, Defence needs to adopt hedging measures to actively address the ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Simon Cotton. 4 Nov 2021. As tensions across the Taiwan Strait rise, pressure is growing on the US administration to deter China more effectively by giving up on strategic ambiguity and moving towards a policy of strategic clarity. Indeed, last month ... more ...

USNI. John Grady. 29 October, 2021 Australia needs “bigger, better submarines now, not two decades from now” to counter China’s “extreme bullying” of nations across the Indo-Pacific, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday. ... more ...

USNI. John Grady. 3 November, 2021 ... more ...

USNI Proceedings. Commander Rob Brodie, U.S. Navy, and Rear Admiral T. Q. Donaldson V, U.S. Navy (Retired). October 2021 In 1942, a German captain warned his fellow U-boat commanders: “The most dangerous feature of American waters ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Michael Shoebridge. 28 Oct 2021. Most of Defence’s grilling in Senate estimates yesterday was about plans and issues around getting eight nuclear submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. There was forensic questioning about who said what to whom about the cancellation ... more ...

What the Election Will Mean for the Country’s Defense Policy Foreign Affairs. Sheila A. Smith. 28 October, 2021 Japan has a new prime minister, and in the year ahead, Fumio Kishida will likely chart ... more ...

Nikkei Asia. Kentaro Amoto. 27 October, 2021 SINGAPORE – An undercurrent of unease over the intensifying superpower rivalry and the new AUKUS ... more ...

The Diplomat. Mercy A. Kuo. 27 October, 2021 The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Baani Grewal and Nathan Ruser. 21 Oct 2021 India–China border tensions have become one of the Indo-Pacific’s defining territorial disputes. The ongoing Ladakh crisis ended more than three decades of confidence-building measures and border agreements in June 2020 with the deaths ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 21 Oct 2021 Richard N. Haass. Colin Powell, former US national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, who died this week at the age of 84, was ... more ...

America, China, and the Echoes of History Foreign Affairs. Hal Brands and John Lewis Gaddis. November/December 2021. Is the world entering a new cold war? Our answer is yes and no. Yes if we mean a protracted international rivalry, for cold wars in this ... more ...

War’s Sci-Fi Future Foreign Affairs. Christian Brose. In 1898, a Polish banker and self-taught military expert named Jan Bloch published The Future of War, the culmination of his long obsession with the impact of modern technology ... more ...

The new Great Game: Central Asia struggles to balance three powers Nikkei Asia. Yohei Ishikawa. 20 October, 2021 ... more ...

A Force for Good in the Changing International Order Foreign Affairs. Tsai Ing-wen (President of Taiwan). November/December 2021 The story of Taiwan is one of resilience—of a country upholding democratic, progressive values while facing ... more ...

Indo-Pacific Security Depends on Reviving Bilateral Defense Dialogue Foreign Affairs. Chris Li and Eric Rosenbach. 15 October, 2021 Nearly nine months into the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, Washington’s relationship with Beijing has sunk to a historic ... more ...

The Australian. Paul Kelly. 16 October 2021 Given Chinese President Xi Jinping’s intimidation of Taiwan to affirm reunification with its alleged breakaway province, Taiwan now ... more ...

Beijing Is Running Out of Time to Remake the World Foreign Affairs. Michael Beckley and Hal Brands. 1 October, 2021 The prevailing consensus, in Washington and overseas, is that China is surging past ... more ...

The Australian. Dennis Shanahan. 12 October 2021 The US’s Virginia-class nuclear submarine is the best option for Australia according to a former US Navy secretary who believes training for Australian crews on the subs could begin “right now”. Richard Spencer, the ... more ...

The two “strategic cousins” could grow closer as a result of their shared frictions with an increasingly assertive China. The Diplomat. Philip Citowicki and John Blaxland. 11 October 2021 Canada and Australia can be viewed as something like strategic cousins: similar in many respects ... more ...

USNI NEWS. Heather Mongilio. 6 October 2021. ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Navy’s approach to China is to deter, not to fight a war, Secretary of ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Ron Huisken. 7 Oct 2021. In a world largely inured to shocks, the announcement that Australia, in partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom, would acquire nuclear-powered submarines was a bombshell. We haven’t over-egged this development—it was dramatic. It ... more ...

The Benefits of AUKUS Outweigh the Proliferation Risks Foreign Affairs. Caitlin Talmadge. 27 September, 2021 The United States’ decision to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia is coming under fire from some experts on nuclear nonproliferation. These critics fear that ... more ...

Backlash Is Building—but Beijing Can’t Seem to Recalibrate Foreign Affairs. Peter Martin. 6 October, 2021 In early 2017, China appeared to be on a roll. Its economy was beating estimates. President Xi Jinping was implementing the country’s ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Oriana Skyla Mastro & Zack Cooper. 5 Oct 2021 When Barack Obama announced the rebalance to Asia in 2011, he also revealed ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 28 Sep 2021 Ramesh Thakur. In its first comment on the new AUKUS partnership, The Economist said it represents the shifting of geopolitical tectonic plates. The defence implications for Australia and the regional and global ... more ...

Center for International Maritime Security. Micah Petersen and Addison McLamb. 21 September 2021. As the final boardwalk shop on Kandahar Airfield closed its doors for the last time, reality hit home: this time the United States was actually leaving Afghanistan. A decade ago, thousands ... more ...

The Australian. Chris Patten. 26 September 2021 The basic text making the case for an international-relations rulebook was provided by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides in his account of the Peloponnesian ... more ...

Fights Over Small Places Could Spark the Next Big War Foreign Affairs. Dan Altman. 24 September 2021 The relationship between conquest and conflict may seem straightforward: start a war, prevail on the ... more ...

Diego Garcia expected to help Royal Navy project strength from base in Oman Nikkei Asia. Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa. 24 September 21 ... more ...

The cargo, not the ships, should guide Australia’s responses to potential threats against seaborne trade and supply. The Interpreter. Peter Layton. 20 Sep 2021. China’s maritime warfare capabilities become more potent almost daily. Thomas Shugart’s new ... more ...

First thoughts on the consequences of a truly momentous decision. Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 16 Sep 2021 Australia is about to join an exclusive ... more ...

Ambassador vows pact won’t affect bloc’s ‘centrality’ in regional architecture Nikkei Asia. Kentaro IWamoto. 21 September 2021 SINGAPORE – Australia is striving to ease concerns ... more ...

Spectator Australia. Stephen Daisley 18 September 2021. The awkwardly-named AUKUS agreement reflects Washington’s escalating concern about China’s dominance in the Indo-Pacific. It signals London’s determination to be more, not less, involved in the global community after Brexit and the retreat from Afghanistan. Ultimately, however, ... more ...

‘One-child army’ more inclined to add unmanned aircraft and ballistic missiles Nikkei Asia. Tetsuro Kosaka. 19 September 2021. TOKYO – The Chinese Communist Party has unintentionally revealed weaknesses of the ... more ...

Complaints about America’s attention to the region need to be put in proper context. The Interpreter. Jun Yan Chang, Collin Koh. 15 Sep 2021. . The dust has ... more ...

Will a Divided World Survive Common Threats? Foreign Affairs. Thomas Wright. September/October 2021. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Washington was coalescing around a new bipartisan consensus: great-power competition, especially with China, ought to be the main organizing principle of U.S. ... more ...

Warship design is on the precipice of a new revolution. Navies are looking at the potential of un-crewed, lean-crewed and multirole vessels as part of their fleets. RAND Europe research leader James Black discusses what defines a warship in the 21st century. Naval Technology. August 2021. ... more ...

Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Daniel F. Runde. 16 September 2021 The moment of serious U.S. reengagement with the Western Hemisphere is long overdue. Six decades after the launch of the Alliance for Progress, the United States is once again in need of an ambitious framework for regional engagement. ... more ...

Quadrant. Antony Carr. 10 September 2021 I was wondering how long it would take for American commentators to come up with semi-plausible reasons for continuing to support a President who has overseen the most comprehensive and humiliating defeat in US history. Until recently we’ve ... more ...

More warships in disputed waters may cause instability. But the presence of navies from afar sends a clear message, too. The Lowy Institute, The Interpreter. Loro Horta. 2 September 2021 ... more ...

What’s Bad for Washington Isn’t Necessarily Good for Beijing Foreign Affairs. Seth G. Jones and Jude Blanchette. 13 September 2021 The hasty and tumultuous U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent military victory ... more ...

Australia is big enough and rich enough to defend itself in these frightening times; we just choose not to. What are the options if China succeeds in pushing the US out of the region? The Australian. Jim Molan. 11 September 2021. ... more ...

A Smarter Counterterrorism Approach Is Now Within Reach Foreign Affairs. Article by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. 10 September, 2021. Among the many bitter ironies of the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, few are as ... more ...

Beijing has been boosting its influence in the region after US retreat Nikkei News. Article by Katsuhiko Meshino. 10 September 2021 TOKYO – More than a few people ... more ...

USNI NEWS. Mallory Shelbourne. 7 September 2021. ABOARD THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP USS KANSAS CITY, OFF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA – With the ... more ...

Maritime diplomacy is the key to India’s more muscular China strategy The Diplomat. Article by Sreeram Chaulia. 09 September 2021. ... more ...

“Sea control” is not about dominating waters but only to the extent necessary to ensure the movement needed. The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. James Goldrick. 3 September 2021. Tom Shugart’s Lowy Institute analysis of the rising maritime capabilities of China’s ... more ...

All wars are forever when you don’t know what you’re fighting for. Front Page. 17Aug 2021. Daniel Greenfield. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. “Afghanistan’s collapse: ... more ...

The Australian. Tom Switzer. 6 September 2021. September 11 is not just shorthand for the terrorist attacks 20 years ago. It also takes in the US ... more ...

Does Washington Worry Too Much About Threats? Foreign Affairs. By Tanisha M. Fazal. September/October 2021. As U.S. President Joe Biden seeks to resurrect American leadership on the world stage, the perennial question of how the United States should respond to international crises looms large. In his latest book, the political ... more ...

Centre For Independent Studies. Tom Switzer. 25 August 2021. The American effort to remake Afghanistan as a viable democratic state has ended in failure. It’s tragic for those in this war-torn country who long for peace and stability. For the US, the tragedy involves ... more ...

The Brookings Institute. 2 August 2021. The following is an excerpt from “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order” by former Brookings Fellow Rush Doshi. This introductory chapter summarizes the book’s argument. It explains that U.S.-China competition is over regional and global order, outlines what Chinese-led order ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 2 Sep 2021.Tomohiko Taniguchi. Australia’s strategic value to Japan can be summed up in three points. Australia is Japan’s partner in bearing the torch of democracy, a quasi-ally with which Japan will work to maintain the Indo-Pacific as a free and ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 2 Sep 2021.Ron Huisken. Earlier this year, freelance analysts in the United States confirmed vague Pentagon speculation since around 2018 that China intended to expand its force of land-based strategic missiles capable of reaching most or all of the US. These ... more ...

A war in Asia would be a true test of the “unbreakable” bonds said to define the US-Australia relationship. The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 1 September 2021. The ... more ...

In a game of diplomatic spot-the-difference, a sense of continuity is evident at recent AUSMIN meetings. The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Daniel Flitton. 1 Sep21. Call it a measure of remarkable diplomatic consistency. Every year since 2013, at least one of two familiar ... more ...

What the War on Terror Cost America Foreign Affairs. Article by Elliot Ackerman. September/October 2021 My first mission as a paramilitary officer with the CIA was against a top-ten al Qaeda target. It was the autumn of 2009, and I had been deployed in ... more ...

America’s Broken Civil-Military Relationship Imperils National Security Foreign Affairs. Article by Risa Brooks, Jim Golby, and Heidi Urben. May/June 2021. When U.S. President Donald Trump left office on January 20, many of those concerned about ... more ...

Recent events have seen a modern Australian military member emerging – vocal, humanitarian and politically active. Lowy Institute, The Interpreter. Cate Carter. 25Aug21. Events this year have meant that uniformed ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Hugh White. 27August21 Recognising the limits to Australia’s military potential. ... more ...

Beijing will be the first major power to recognize the new regime Nikkea Asia. James Stavridis. 21 August, 2021 Admiral James Stavridis was 16th ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 20 Aug 2021. Malcolm Davis. The arms control community has been gripped by the discovery that China appears to be building hundreds of new missile silos. The development raises the prospect that China may be breaking out of its traditional ‘minimum ... more ...

Foreign Affairs. Angela Stent. 16 August, 2021 _Why Moscow’s Moves Could Determine the Future of Navigation _ On July 25, President Vladimir Putin gave a rousing speech in St. Petersburg to mark the 325th anniversary of ... more ...

Wall Street Journal. Tunku Varadarajan. 20 August 2021. He offers unsparing words about Trump and Biden, a defense of nation-building, and he says U.S. soldiers may have to re-enter Kabul in force to rescue Americans. As Americans despair over the Afghanistan catastrophe, few have ... more ...

Nikkei Asia. Hiroyuki Akita. 17 August 2021 Beijing and Moscow fear extremists flooding into Central Asia as Taliban return A U.S. defeat in war should be good news for China and Russia, considering that any blow to American prestige and leadership is a win ... more ...

Lowy Institute. Thomas Shugart. 9 August 2021. Beijing’s maritime and aerospace capabilities will have serious implications in the event of an Indo-Pacific power play. KEY FINDINGS China’s recent military development constitutes the greatest expansion of maritime and aerospace power in generations ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 18 Aug 2021. John Howard. This post is an excerpt from the new ASPI publication ANZUS at 70: the past, present and future of the alliance. I first met President George W Bush on 10 September 2001. I had travelled to ... more ...

ASPI. 17 Aug 2021. Michael Shoebridge. The collapse of the Afghan government and Afghan National Security Forces once US and NATO military support ended has been graphic and rapid. There are many analyses about the folly of US President Joe Biden’s administration and ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 19 Aug 2021.Marcus Hellyer. The government has announced an 18-month delay to the Royal Australian Navy’s Hunter-class future frigate program. Is this a sign that the project is in serious trouble? Or is it simply an overdue recognition of the reality ... more ...

The Strategist. 12 Aug 2021.James Goldrick. In the first years of the 20th century, shared perceptions of the potential threat from Japan began to bring Australia and America together. President Theodore Roosevelt’s dispatch of 16 battleships of the US Navy on a round-the-world cruise ... more ...

ANI. Louis Martin-Vézian. August 2021 On the morning of June 23, 2021, the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender departed its port of call in Odessa, Ukraine, and made way for Batumi, Georgia. While in transit, the destroyer conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) ... more ...

The Diplomat. Mercy A. Kuo. 12 Aug 21. The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This conversation with Robert Ward, Japan chair and director of Geo-economics ... more ...

Foreign Affairs. By Kevin Rudd. 6 August 2021 Its Success Poses a Major Threat to Beijing’s Ambitions When former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited officials from Australia, India, and the ... more ...

Nikkei Asia. Louise Watt. June 2021 Officials split on whether ‘gray zone’ intimidation or rogue vessels ... more ...

The Spectator. Shabnam Nasimi. 10 Aug 2021 There is a common misconception that America somehow imposed democracy on Afghanistan. In reality, Afghans welcomed the opportunity to live in a more liberal country after the Taleban was forced out ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 4 Aug 2021. Joseph S. Nye. During the four decades of the Cold War, the United States had a grand strategy focused on containing the power of the Soviet Union. Yet by the 1990s, following the Soviet Union’s collapse, America ... more ...

CIMSEC. 4 Aug 21. Collin Fox. Precision munitions have been sinking warships for the better part of a century, but never before have they been so capable, so widely proliferated, or benefited so much from omniscient surveillance and precise targeting. These convergent factors ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 5 Aug 2021. Michael Shoebridge. Wargaming of US, Australian and other partner militaries in conflict with the People’s Liberation Army after China attacks Taiwan shows the allied forces lose. That means our force structures need to change fast. Scenarios for ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 4 Aug 2021.David Brewster and Samuel Bashfield. The Indian Ocean is an increasingly contested strategic environment. A growing Chinese naval presence raises the prospect that Beijing may seek to challenge US naval dominance, potentially sparking a competitive naval arms race in ... more ...

Published in The Diplomat. Bonnie Girard. 30 July 2021. The U.K.’s naval presence in East Asia has provoked an angry response from China. On July 1, 1997, the government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handed over its ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Paul Dibb. 26 Jul 2021. In the face of an increasing torrent of abuse from Beijing, Canberra should seek a much clearer commitment from Washington that its United States ally will retaliate if China launches a missile attack against Australia. ... more ...

Baird Maritime. Article by Trevor Hollingsbee. 27 July 2021. China’s unrelenting efforts to dominate the South China Sea (SCS) and to restrict its use by vessels of other nations has proved to be ... more ...

Australian Institute of International Affairs. Professor James Laurenceson. 29 July 2021 A litmus test is at hand of just how far domestic politics and vague national security “threats” now drive Australian government decision-making towards China. The test involves the Chinese company, Landbridge, and ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Jim Molan. 30 Jul 2021. Over many decades, Hans Ohff and Jon Stanford have made significant contributions to the defence debate in Australia and they’ve have earned the right to comment. As Australian shipbuilders and submariners engaged in the highest level ... more ...

USNI News. John Grady. 26 July 2021 A “neighbourhood watch approach” using coordinated American and allies’ unmanned systems and sensors could provide ... more ...

Centre For Independent Studies. Tom Tugendhat. 6 July2021. After Australia was hit with harsh Chinese trade tariffs on wine, one country stepped up: In Britain, we took one—or rather several—for the team, and imports of South Australia’s finest surged 30 percent. Britain is now ... more ...

USNI News. Sam LaGrone. 27 July 27 2021. The pair of Ghost Fleet ships the Navy and the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office are using as testbeds to prove ... more ...

ASPI. By John Coyne and Teagan Westendorf. July2021 Darwin Harbour and the port facilities along its eastern arm have a long history of disregard, disrepair and haphazard investment and control by successive governments dating back to the close of World ... more ...

CIMSEC July 2021 by Moritz Brake & Sebastian Bruns The German government recently announced the deployment of the frigate Bayern to the South China Sea. With this deployment, Berlin is aiming to send a strong signal to its European and American allies. However, it ... more ...

The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Ameya Pratap Singh Urvi Tembey. July 2020. _Control over key rivers effectively gives China a chokehold on India’s economy – and poses a wider regional threat. _ ... more ...

The Diplomat. Alec Bohlman. 24 July 24 2021. The new vision for the U.S. Marine Corps will impact cooperation with allies as well. Force Design 2030 for the United States Marine Corps (USMC) sparked criticism that the USMC is becoming too specialized for the ... more ...

Foreign Affairs. Jacqueline L. Hazelton. 15 July 2021 How America Gets Counterinsurgency Wrong After two decades, the United States is finally leaving Afghanistan, and only 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. In both countries, the insurgencies continue. It ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 15 Jul 2021 Marcus Hellyer. The Royal Australian Navy is in the early stages of a long transition that is notable for its strategic risk. Both its core surface and subsurface combat fleets are ageing ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Pratik Jakhar. 12 July 2021 Five years ago the Philippines largely squandered a crucial legal win. But it’s not too late to marshal support. ... more ...

Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Reprinted with permission. The United States and its allies must have sufficient combat power in key theatres such that the enemy will hesitate to undertake hostile operations. By Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (Retired). July 2021 Proceedings. ... more ...

Why America Failed in Afghanistan Foreign Affairs. Christina Lamb. July/August 2021 In 2008, I interviewed the United Kingdom’s then outgoing military commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, in a dusty firebase in Helmand Province, where international troops had been battling the Taliban on a daily basis for territory that kept ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 7 Jul 2021 Hans J. Ohff and Jon Stanford. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison compared Australia’s strategic situation to that in 1939, he was right in two respects. We have again put too much ... more ...

The Race to Consolidate Power and Stave Off Disaster Foreign Affairs. Jude Blanchette. July 2021. Xi Jinping is a man on a mission. After coming to power in late 2012, he moved rapidly to consolidate his political authority, purge ... more ...

Military standoffs along the Himalayan border continue to intensify NikkeiAsia. Brahma Chellaney. 7 July2021 Chinese ... more ...

Washington needs allies to step up, but Tokyo spots pitfalls all around Nikkei Asia. KEN MORIYASU, Nikkei Asia chief desk editor. 23 June 2021 ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 30 Jun 2021 David Kilcullen. In 2009, senior Australian Army officer Chris Field wrote that, for the Australian Defence Force to win in 21st century conflicts, we must ‘recognise that asymmetry is not the sole ... more ...

USNI News. Sam LaGrone. 29June21. Last year, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command quietly packed the combat system from a guided-missile destroyer into about the size of a footlocker, took it ashore and ... more ...

Center for International Maritime Security. Article by Major John Bowser. 22June21. Introduction The DoD has shifted its focus away from fighting insurgents in the Middle East to prepare for large-scale combat operations. The shift in focus requires that DoD reassess its critical vulnerabilities, especially ... more ...

https://www.c4isrnet.com. By Mark Pomerleau. 29 June 2021. WASHINGTON — The United States ranks as the world’s top cyber superpower, according to a new study published ... more ...

The Diplomat. Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga. 25 June 2021 Why Australia should take threats of Chinese military attack seriously for the future, but not literally for today. Last month, Hu Xijin, the editor of the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper, made a startling threat on his ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 24 Jun 2021.Brendan Nicholson. Avoiding conflict with China will require a much deeper understanding of how its rulers and military planners view deterrence and coercion, warns a new ASPI report. To deter the PRC … is written by Lieutenant Colonel Kyle ... more ...

The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Joanne Wallis. 21 Jun 2021 Becoming tangled in power politics can create divisions between – as well as within – nations across the region. When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 7 June 2021. Andrew Kirby and Jeremy Stredwick. Australia is currently undertaking the greatest peacetime recapitalisation of its defence force in the nation’s history, and if the prime minister, defence minister and Home Affairs secretary are to be believed it couldn’t ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 9 June 21. Nick Danby. In late April, President Joe Biden reiterated his pledge to bring an end to American complacency on the world stage. ‘We are in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century,’ he ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 15 Jun 2021.Huong Le Thu and Sarah Teo. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has been the venue for the most visible foreign policy signalling on the Indo-Pacific from US President Joe Biden since he assumed office in January. In March, Biden ... more ...

USNI News. 14June21. Sam LeGrone. U.S. aircraft carriers are already facing risks from hypersonic weapons that are now entering the inventory of American adversaries and the ... more ...

Defense News. Everett Pyatt. 5 June21 The proposed U.S. Navy shipbuilding budget for fiscal 2021 contains only good news for China. The threat of a larger U.S. Navy has disappeared. Reductions of cruisers ... more ...

Australian Naval Institute. Article by Tom Lewis. June 2021. Australia’s submarine acquisition program has spent several billion dollars and not seen a metre ... more ...

_ASPI. The Strategist.1 Jun 2021 Brendan Nicholson_ Given the scale of the threats Australia may face in an uncertain future, the nation needs to seriously reconsider how it will defend itself, strategist Albert Palazzo has warned. That will ... more ...

NikkeiAsia. Shaun Turton. 1 June 2021. PHNOM PENH – U.S. senior diplomat Wendy Sherman says Washington has “serious concerns” about ... more ...

As America’s policy choices narrow to two extremes, a new proposal for a middle path LOWY INSTITUTE ANALYSES 20 MAY 2021PATRICK PORTER, MICHAEL MAZARR KEY FINDINGS There is a growing bipartisan consensus in Washington on a tighter embrace of Taiwan, which may soon become ... more ...

Centre for International Maritime Security. 20 May 2021. Ryan Ratcliffe. “Ultimate excellence lies…in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.” —Sun Tzu ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Peter Jennings. 17May21. In last week’s expansionary budget, one area that felt a bit underdone was defence. Here, the government delivered what it promised 12 months ago: $44.6 billion, an increase over last year’s budget of 4.1% in real terms. At ... more ...

The islands could help Beijing secure the Western Pacific without actually fighting for it. ANI Article by Phillip Orchard. 10 May 2021. For several months, China has been relentlessly asserting its control over disputed parts of the South China Sea. Hundreds of vessels in the Chinese maritime militia – lightly ... more ...

USNI News. 11 May 21. John Grady. Top security ... more ...

ANI weekly summary. 10 May21 It’s fair to say that of all the branches of HM Armed Forces, the Royal Navy has the most reason to be hopeful at the start of 2021. With Wildcat and the various new anti-ship ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 7 May 2021.Elena Yi-Ching Ho and Malcolm Davis. There’s rising concern about the prospect of a major military crisis erupting across the Taiwan Strait as a result of China’s intention to force Taiwan to unify with the mainland. President Xi Jinping ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Michael Shoebridge. 8 May 2021. Australia has a highly capable, professional military equipped with small numbers of very complex, extremely expensive aircraft, ships, submarines and land vehicles. Australia could fight other middle powers and win, but Australia should only ever plan ... more ...

Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Reprinted with permission The United States must invest more time, greater research, and more financial resources to overcome data deceptions and adapt AI to military applications. May 2021 Proceedings. By Captain Sam J. ... more ...

The Australian Naval Institute is pleased to announce that General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK AC(Mil) CVO MC (Retd) has kindly agreed to deliver the 2021 Vernon Parker Oration. Entitled Sharks in the Moat: A Landsman’s View of our Maritime Security Environment, it ... more ...

Guy Griffiths: The Life and Times of an Australian Admiral by Peter Jones will be launched by the Chief of Navy VADM Michael Noonan AO RAN at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra from ... more ...

Sydney Morning Herald. 4 May 2021. Nick McKenzie and Anthony Galloway. One of the nation’s top military commanders told his troops that Beijing is already engaged in “grey zone” warfare against Australia and they must plan for the high likelihood this may spill over into actual conflict in the future. ... more ...

The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Sam Roggeveen. 4 May 2021. In the face of sustained coercion, Canberra has rejected the urge to seek economic revenge against Beijing. Now that the Morrison government has cancelled Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with China, Australia is ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Brendan Nicholson. 29 April 2021. A clear strategy of the Biden administration is to repair relations with allies and partners and to build up the cooperation with them before negotiating with China, says Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Arthur Sinodinos. ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Michael Shoebridge. 28 April 2021. There’s a greater likelihood of major conflict in the Indo-Pacific region now than at any time since the end of the Vietnam War. That’s why the Australian government’s 2020 defence strategic update ended the ... more ...

Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Ivy Kwek. 14 April 2021. _“The region will need assurance to overcome scepticism about the Quad and assuage a deep-seated fear of upsetting China”. _ Last month, the leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – the United ... more ...

Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Reprinted with permission Article by Captain Joseph F. Yurso, U.S. Navy (Retired). October 2017. On 10 April 1963, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank with all hands during sea trials off the Massachusetts coast. At the time, I was the shipyard watch officer at Portsmouth Naval ... more ...

The Strategist. 16 April 2021. Brendan Nicholson. The war in Afghanistan has profoundly changed the Australian Army and had a significant impact on the whole defence force. Around 30,000 ADF personnel served in Afghanistan and 41 died there. The vast majority of them fought ... more ...

ASPI, The Strategist. 19 April 2021. Graeme Dobell. It’s hard to believe these days, but Australia used to be shy about proclaiming a defence or security guarantee to Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. In the 1970s and 1980s, a gap opened between ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 19 April 2021. Sarosh Bana. In a move that has deeply embarrassed the Indian government, a guided missile destroyer from the US 7th Fleet transgressed into India’s exclusive economic zone on 7 April. Later that day, the fleet commander issued ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 21 April 2021. Amin Saikal. Since World War II, the United States has lost just about every war that it has fought in a developing country. It has epitomised the tragedy of a world power’s incapability in asymmetric conflicts. The latest ... more ...

The following message has been received from the Naval Historical Society of Australia: “Dear Members and Subscribers, You and your friends in Sydney on 31 May 21 are invited to join us for this three hour cruise. Full details are provided in the flyer which can be downloaded via the ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 15 April 2021. Denis Mole. In Adelaide’s The Advertiser newspaper on 7 March, former defence minister Christopher Pyne said, ‘Then there is the nonsensical argument that the Attack Class submarines are no good because they aren’t nuclear. Almost all of these ... more ...

Gaining access to a Cambodian naval facility would give China’s navy little discernible strategic advantage. The Diplomat. Chen Heang. 7 April 2021. The potential establishment of a Chinese naval base in Cambodia has received extensive attention since the publication of report by the Wall Street Journal in mid-2019, claiming that ... more ...

Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Reprinted with permission. The Beiyang Fleet’s resounding defeat in the 1894 Battle of the Yalu River left its mark on Chinese naval thinking to this day. ... more ...

USNI News. 9 April 2021. Sam LeGrone. A U.S. carrier strike group and amphibious ready group are in the South China Sea as tensions increase between Manila and Beijing over a Chinese maritime militia incursion into the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the Navy ... more ...

Defense News.Com. Joe Gould. 14 April 2021 WASHINGTON ― China is working ... more ...

USNI News. Megan Eckstein. 5 April 2021. A plan to keep the Navy’s guided-missile cruiser fleet operating through the end of the 2030s is struggling as the ships show ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Malcolm Davis. 7 April 2021. A historic first meeting of the leaders of the countries of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue took place last month, albeit via video link, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide ... more ...

Military Times. 7 April 2021. WASHINGTON (AP) — The American military ... more ...

“This is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.” Reprinted from Task & Purpose. 5 April 2021. David Roza. There were a lot of ... more ...

The Australian. 6 April 2021. Amanda Hodge. The waters have been calm around the Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly Island chain, yet that hasn’t stopped more ... more ...

Defense News. David B. Larter. WASHINGTON — Just because China might be able to hit U.S. Navy aircraft carriers with long-range anti-ship missiles doesn’t mean carriers are worthless, the ... more ...

The Lowy Institute - The Interpreter. 19 March 2021. David Brewster. An Islamist insurgency is spilling danger into a major shipping lane, and countries must decide who they want to fix it. The waters off Mozambique are becoming a major ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 23 Mar 2021. Andrew Davies. It’s always risky to proffer an opinion on the probable impact of a new technology, especially if you aren’t entirely convinced that a much-touted ‘game-changer’ is quite as significant as its proponents would have you think. ... more ...

On Chinese warships, a military commander and political commissar serve side by side to achieve both military and political objectives. By Captain Jeff W. Benson, U.S. Navy, and ... more ...

The Australian. 29 March 2021. Article by Paul Dibb. We cannot allow China to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea, then seek Beijing’s permission to transit it with 60 per cent of our exports. But does the ADF have the strike capability to stare down threats? ... more ...

The Lowy Institute - The Interpreter. ABHIJIT SINGH. 17 March 2021 Be assertive close to home. But India should not shrink from distant waters, either. An interesting debate has emerged in the ... more ...

Reprinted from ASPI. The Strategist. 3 Feb 2021. Ryan D. Martinson Since its October release in draft form, China’s new coastguard law has been the subject of dozens of news reports and analyses. Maritime law enforcement legislation rarely attracts such international attention, but in ... more ...

The Australian. 14 March 2021. Allan DuPont. There’s a seminal shift underway in Australia’s relationship with the US based on mutual need and Morrison’s determination to act more forcefully. ... more ...

Reprinted from The Lowy Institute Interpreter. 10 March 2021. Debates over naval policy need to be mounted with a full understanding of just what a nation needs to do at sea. ... more ...

Reprinted from US Navy Times 10 March 2012. The outgoing ... more ...

Reprinted with permission. ASPI. The Strategist. 9 March 2021. Michael Shoebridge. Debate on Australia’s future submarines is understandably focused on the information that floats out of the Defence Department about France’s Naval Group and the $80 billion program to design and build the ... more ...

Reprinted with Permission of ASPI. The Strategist. 10 Mar 2021. Brahma Chellaney. Emboldened by its cost-free expansion in the South China Sea, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime has stepped up efforts to replicate that model in the Himalayas. In particular, China is aggressively building ... more ...

Reprinted from a CIMSEC Article 2 March 2021 By Mark McIntyre and Joe DiPietro ... more ...

ASPI_The Strategist_ 3 March 2021 Reprinted with permission. When China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently called for a reset of bilateral relations with the United States, a White House spokesperson replied that the US saw the relationship as one of strong competition ... more ...

Loyal wingman’s first flight shows fourth industrial revolution in defence capability has arrived ASPI_The Strategist_Marcus Hellyer 3 March 2021 With the ongoing gloom hanging around Australia’s future submarine program and signs that the future frigate is facing some big problems, it’s great to see ... more ...

Copyright U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Reprinted with permission By Commander Michael Dahm, U.S. Navy (Retired) March 2021 Proceedings THE 1991 GULF WAR was a harbinger of change for the Chinese military. In just 42 days, ... more ...

US Navy Times. 1 March 2022 WASHINGTON — A congressionally mandated artificial intelligence report released Monday called for billions of dollars of U.S. investment, warning that China “possesses the might, talent, and ambition” ... more ...

Lowy Institute: The Interpreter. Article by Oriana Skylar Mastro. Beijing’s misapplication of international law in the disputed waters is more complex than it seems on the surface. Chinese exercises ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. Marcus Hellyer. 16 February 2021 In my most recent article, I noted that the Department of Defence appears to be in the early stages of identifying a ship-launched land-attack missile for acquisition. The government assessed in its 2020 defence strategic update that it ... more ...

ASPI. The Strategist. 18 February 2021. Charlie Lyons Jones and Raphael Veit. The Chinese Communist Party’s first leader, Mao Zedong, once said that ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’. Mao’s words echo a fundamental truth of China’s system of government—that the ... more ...

British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will visit Japan to “enhance Japan-UK defence cooperation”. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed the deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth during the ‘2+2’ virtual meeting with their respective Japanese counterparts, Ministers ... more ...

The Lowy Institute. The Interpreter. Blake Herzinger. 15 February 2021. US claims to upholding the rules-based order don’t square with its silence on Mauritian sovereignty in the Chagos. Attempts to justify a continuation of British control of the Chagos Islands look like destroying the rules-based order in order to save ... more ...

To break the border stand-off between India and China in the Himalayas, some Indian analysts have advocated going on the offensive against China ... more ...

US Navy Times. 11 Feb 2021. WASHINGTON — The new Biden administration has been reversing many of the Trump administration’s policies in areas such as immigration and energy, but when it comes to confronting China’s actions in the South China Sea, at the ... more ...

The Strategist: by Malcolm Davis 11 Feb 2021 There are growing signs that a military crisis could erupt across the Taiwan Strait this year as China flexes its military muscle to strongarm Taipei into accepting unification. ASPI’s Peter Jennings notes that Beijing is ... more ...

Source - The Strategist: Marcus Hellyer 11 Feb 2021 Last month, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds put out a media release announcing a boost to Australia’s maritime security. Its focus was the navy’s weapons program. The announcement had a medley of numbers—a $1 billion investment ... more ...

From USNI News. Article by Xavier Vavasseur February 10, 2021 A French Navy Rubis-class nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) patrolled the South China Sea, the French minister of armed forces announced in a series of ... more ...

The Strategist: by James Goldrick 5 February 2021 In recent years, China has taken a dim view of Australian naval and air activities in the South China Sea. Australia is considered an intruder, an external power that has no right to ... more ...

The Strategist: 4 February 2020 by Bradley Perrett Australia should be paying close attention to the imminent appearance of the Xian H-20 stealth bomber built by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. The aircraft will greatly improve China’s ability to hit distant targets, such ... more ...

LOWY INSTITUTE: The Interpreter 22 Jan 2021 by Alexey Muraviev & Nina Markovic Khaze For all the talk of China, the Russia factor is still a huge challenge for the Biden administration. Vladimir Putin is a master of keeping his political counterparts on their ... more ...

By Peter Jennings ASPI: Originally published by: The Australian on 27 Jan 2021 President Joe Biden’s first international crisis will likely be over the future of Taiwan. Beijing has been positioning for this outcome for months by steadily increasing military pressure against Taipei. The People’s Liberation Army (air force) on ... more ...

The Strategist _ article by James Goldrick 21 January 2021 In 1976, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergei Georgyevich Gorshkov published his exposition of Soviet maritime strategy under the title The sea power of the state. It was translated by United ... more ...

_www.defensenews.com - David B. Larter - 20 January 2021   __ WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy and General Atomics in November 2020 used sonobuoys dropped from an MQ-9A Block V Reaper to track a simulated submarine target on a U.S. Navy Pacific test range, in what the contractor says is ... more ...

The U.S. Navy was key to victory in the Persian Gulf War—which set the fleet on a new course for a new strategic era. US Naval Institute January 2021 - By Edward J. Marolda Operation Desert Storm (17 January–28 February 1991) witnessed the U.S. Navy’s evolution from a force zeroed ... more ...

War is unlikely – but possible ASIA TIMES _ MARK VALENCIA 23Dec2020 It’s that time again when US administrations change and a plethora of foreign-policy pundits post proposals and predictions for the incoming administration. This time around a prominent topic is US-China policy and – in particular – US policy ... more ...

The US and its allies may have military dominance in the region, but it’s no guarantee of influence. (From The Interpreter : Oriana Skylar Mastro Published 16 Dec 2020 06:00) Two recent naval exercises demonstrate the potential for Russia-China cooperation in the Indian Ocean, and how the two present a ... more ...

30 Jun 2020 Richard Dunley_The Strategist Defence commentators have devoted much attention in recent years to the development of long-range anti-ship missiles, whether in the form of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) or hypersonic cruise missiles. These discussions invariably focus on the concept of anti-access/area ... more ...

31 Dec 2020 Elizabeth White_The Strategist (Originally published 6 March 2020). When you stop and think about it, it seems a miracle that the global economy spins on as well as it does. As the spread of Covid-19 has shown, any decent disruption to ... more ...