Australia must adapt to a new climate reality

Dealing with the impacts of global warming must not become sidelined by narrowly defining it as a national security issue. Nibbling at the edges of the global warming phenomenon will not suffice.

The logic of conventional deterrence

Much of the responsibility for Australia’s future security will be borne by our diplomats and the foreign policy they are charged with pursuing, as well as our military force.

Why Truman stands taller than Trump

Harry S. Truman was at least 10 centimetres smaller in stature than Donald Trump, but he towers above him as a national and international leader.

Fascism has not returned to Europe

Were fascism to ascend again in Europe, international security would be menaced and the liberal international order be even more imperilled. However, Europe’s current far-right parties fail to meet the minimum fascist criteria.

The terror in a label

While the west continues to tackle terrorism abroad and within its own borders, authoritarian and dictatorial regimes are also terming their opponents ‘terrorists’ to justify their own acts of persecution, ethnic cleansing and state-sponsored violence.

The widening gap between ethics and international relations

In 1918 prominent American philosopher James H. Tufts asked, ‘Is there, can there be, any ethics of international relations?’ In the turbulent century since, that question has inspired many attempts at an answer and contemporary events press the issue again.

Assessing the submarine threat to Australia

Is the Commonwealth’s purchase of 9 anti-submarine frigates to protect Australian waters from foreign submarines or to offer support to our allies against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea?

Liberal democracy: just one option among many?

Democracy appears to be on the retreat around the world and the rise of economically successful authoritarian states is undermining the assumption that political and economic freedom are essential partners for national success.

What is Australia’s strategic plan B?

Australian strategic policy has not accounted for a failure of the post-war international order, even as the threats to it grow. Now, as elements of that order crumble, Australia has no coherent alternative to simply hoping against hope that the past will persist into the future.