Do it right in defence

Australia must think hard about the capabilities that will best enable our forces to prosecute the most vital missions against our most likely adversaries.

National security should turn to the cloud

A move now to secure cloud infrastructure is required if Australia’s national security agencies are to maintain and improve their capability.

How not to defend Australia?

Hugh White’s “How to defend Australia” is an elegant book but it’s fundamentally wrong on just about every judgement it contains.

It’s time for a public–private partnership in national security

The threats we face don’t recognise the walls that exist between Australian businesses and national security agencies. To safeguard Australia, we need to put more doors in those divisions.

Australian universities must wake up to the risks of researchers linked to China’s military

China’s aggressive program of acquiring technology from abroad should be a cause of concern for Australian universities. Yet, our system of vetting research collaborations is clearly broken, putting Australian security at risk.

Rethinking Australia’s citizenship bans

The logic behind Australia’s terrorism-related loss-of-citizenship provisions is meant to be brilliantly simple, but the reality of the measure could be counter-productive to its aims.

We must do more than wave the flag in the South China Sea

All hopes of China becoming a ‘responsible stakeholder’ now dead and that nation’s capacity to constrain our maritime freedom of movement will only grow larger. Without action, we will soon find ourselves strategically reliant on the benevolence of an expansionist dictatorship.

The high stakes of grand strategy

The Chinese challenge in Asia, and the Russian threat to the west, are real and require genuine debate, perhaps even strategic innovation. This may all sound intellectually confronting, but it’s vital to confront reality. Our future may well depend on it.

The gray zone and ‘hybrid warfare’

Our increasing connectivity and reliance on information technology is a vulnerability being targeted by two key threats: cyber attacks and the subversion of our democratic institutions.

It’s time for Canberra to stop kowtowing to Beijing

Managing relations with China is the most challenging foreign and security policy problem facing Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his re-elected government. While appeasement is always the easy option, a strong stance is required to protect the region and our liberties.

The threat to the West from ‘political warfare’

A new form of ‘political warfare’ has emerged in the internet age, with information campaigns, cyber operations and social media propaganda used by hostile state actors to undermine western democracies.

More is at stake than merely leaked information

Australians are right to be alarmed about police raids on the ABC and a newspaper journalist’s home.