• Artificial Intelligence

    AI and after


    David Wroe |  September 14, 2026


    Everything changes if we achieve superintelligence. And while even the world’s most accomplished experts across economics, national security, politics, social affairs and technology haven’t settled on the precise direction of change, we know it will be huge.


  • Pacific

    Soalaupule


    Emma Gerhardy |  September 14, 2026


    International security has never suffered from a shortage of expertise. What it often struggles with is perspective, and the Samoan concept of “Soalaupule” could help.


  • Society

    From Bin Laden to Bondi


    Justin Bassi |  September 14, 2026


    The Islamist terror attacks against America 25 years ago and Bali the year after brought the nation together, but the Bondi massacre seems to have driven Australians further apart.


Latest Story

  • A fly trapped in amber

    Jack Jarmon     |      September 13, 2026

    Vladimir Putin’s grand strategy to gain control of Ukraine has degenerated into an inextricable military morass and a vicious cycle of sunk costs. He has entangled Russian society in an endless war that he cannot win and cannot afford to end.

  • The castle

    Alexander Howard     |      September 13, 2026

    Jon Ronson’s new book explores a generation of men adrift in a world of rapid cultural change and economic disempowerment in which traditional roles have disappeared or been disparaged leaving only madness or despair to fill the void.

  • A browned off land

    Mark Kenny     |      September 13, 2026

    Australian has flat wages growth, stagnant productivity and dwindling purchasing power at the supermarket so is it any wonder that the only things consistently growing are anger, distrust, and a sense that the economy is either broken, or worse – being run for someone else?

  • Gambling with our lives

    Michael Noetel     |      September 12, 2026

    The AI companies which stand to make trillions from the technology think it’s worth risking the lives of everyone else on the planet to achieve their goals.

  • Gondwanaland

    Bill Collins     |      September 12, 2026

    Some 550 million years ago, the Earth looked very different to what it does today, as the Southern Hemisphere was dominated by an enormous, single continent known as Gondwana.

  • It’s the economy, stupid

    Carol Johnson     |      September 12, 2026

    The economy is not be the only explanation for the success of One Nation, but it is an essential part of the perceptual glue that holds various populist narratives together which both Labor and the Coalition are struggling to counter.

  • 25 years ago, today

    Adam McCombs     |      September 11, 2026

    The 9/11 terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people and provoked decades of war and recrimination. A quarter of a century later, will the West’s national security systems be resilient enough to withstand the next sudden shock without losing sight of the broader strategic environment?

  • Do something

    Susan Luckman     |      September 11, 2026

    Fears over AI replacing swathes of knowledge workers echoes the displacement of handicrafts by the industrial revolution, but interest in these handicrafts is growing again in revulsion against both.

  • Reading, writing and arithmetic

    Therese N. Hopfenbeck     |      September 11, 2026

    The latest international survey of student reading and writing skills around the world shows a common decline, and Australia isn’t bucking the trend, with screen addiction and lack of respect for teachers offering potential explanations.

  • Where there’s no will, there’s no way

    Meg Tapia     |      September 10, 2026

    Australia isn’t prepared for conflict unless it can build and defend the will to fight and the national civil preparedness and resilience inquiry, adopted in July, offers an opportunity to begin that conversation.

  • A is for app

    Open Forum     |      September 10, 2026

    A new Flinders University study of primary school children suggests a phonics reading app can accelerate early reading while helping teachers identify students needing extra support.

  • All the pieces of the puzzle

    Open Forum     |      September 10, 2026

    Efforts to prevent dementia may be placing too much responsibility on people’s choices while overlooking the wider social and environmental conditions that shape brain health, according to new Curtin University research published in The Lancet Public Health.