• Climate Change

    Australia needs a climate agency


    Open Forum |  December 4, 2024


    Scientists are calling for the urgent establishment of a national agency responsible for coordinating the science required to transform Australia’s response to climate change.


  • Artificial Intelligence

    The alien language of AI


    Olaf Lipinski |  December 4, 2024


    Decoding emergent languages produced by artificial intelligence systems could help us understand how self-driving cars coordinate their movements, how AI systems make decisions and even speak to aliens, if and when contact is made.


  • International

    A world on the move


    David Uren |  December 4, 2024


    Global migration flows have risen to record levels since the pandemic, driven by economic opportunity and conflict, and are facing a widespread policy backlash.


Latest Story

  • Australia needs a coastguard

    Jennifer Parker     |      December 3, 2024

    A new maritime service with smaller, cheaper craft could boost Australia’s maritime security at a time when it’s under more threat than ever.

  • Planning food security

    Andrew Henderson     |      December 3, 2024

    A new industry-led approach lays the groundwork for the national food security preparedness planning that Australia desperately needs.

  • China’s mobile security threat

    Justin Bassi     |      December 3, 2024

    Australia needs to list critical infrastructure and sectors from which suppliers of concern from China and Russia are prohibited, and that should start with electric cars.

  • Sausages and cauldrons: Making law and policy in 21st Century Australia

    David Rowe     |      December 2, 2024

    The divergent fates of proposed federal legislation to restrict social media use by children and online gambling adverts for everyone highlight the complex interplay of public concern, political convenience and vested interest lobbying which shapes policy making in contemporary Australia.

  • Mental gymnastics

    Brandon Munn     |      December 2, 2024

    The brain is a marvel of efficiency, honed by thousands of years of evolution so it can adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Yet, despite decades of research, the mystery of how the brain achieves this has remained elusive.

  • Why sanctions don’t work

    Babak RezaeeDaryakenari     |      December 2, 2024

    Economic sanctions have long been used as a nonviolent foreign policy tool to influence the behaviour and policies of targeted states. While they are often effective in prompting policy changes in democratic countries, they frequently fall short in altering the course of authoritarian regimes.

  • The library of Babel

    Roger Kreuz     |      December 1, 2024

    The internet is often described as one of humanity’s great achievements. But like any other resource, it’s important to give serious thought to how it is maintained and managed – lest we end up confronting the dystopian vision imagined by Jorge Luis Borges over 80 years ago.

  • Stirring the mud

    Georgina Lancaster     |      December 1, 2024

    Conflicting interests and geopolitical competition are complicating proposals for deep sea mining in the Pacific.

  • Space precinct

    Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan     |      December 1, 2024

    Nation states must revitalise existing measures and consider them in international space policy debates to solve the ongoing difficulties in framing new rules for space governance.

  • Hey, Vlad! China is not your friend

    Fergus Neilson     |      November 30, 2024

    China has positioned itself as an ally of Russia in Putin’s brutal war of conquest in Ukraine, but over time demographic, economic and strategic realities suggest it will be China that dominates Russia.

  • Exercise your life expectancy

    Open Forum     |      November 30, 2024

    If everyone was as active as the top 25 per cent of the population, people over the age of 40 could add five years to their life, according to a new study led by Griffith University researchers.

  • Tackling racism in Australia

    Amanuel Elias     |      November 30, 2024

    The Australian Human Rights Commission has launched a comprehensive “National Anti-racism Framework” to tackle, if not eliminate, racism in all sectors of society and government.