The public square: the next theatre of conflict in the digital age

How Australia acts to protect its public square from foreign interference in the digital age will be a defining issue for our country and for democracies all over the world.

Fostering a culture of disaster preparedness

The devastating floods we’ve recently seen in Japan are an indicator of the kinds of challenges we’re facing as a result of a changing climate. How should Australia prepare for similar disasters in the near future?

I can see clearly now! Tech innovation in law enforcement

The rapid acceptance of new technology into our lives creates new risks as well as opportunities and requires a more innovative approach from enforcement and regulatory agencies.

Riders on the storm: what the Tour de France tells us about global security

The world’s greatest sporting event, the Tour de France, is coming to its climax for another year. As well as a great sporting drama in itself, it offers a handy metaphor for the current state of play in global politics.

The changing rules-based international order: Now what?

Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop spoke recently at Chatham House about the challenges Australia faces in defending the rules-based liberal international order in a period of global instability. The Foreign Policy White Paper shows how Australia might respond.

Australia’s response to changing global orders

Australia has responded to three separate changes in the international order over the past century. The two previous international systems terminated in war. Can a new order be marshalled without conflict?

Tech leaders sign global pledge against autonomous weapons

A who’s who of CEOs, engineers and scientists from the technology industry have signed a global pledge – co-organised by UNSW’s Toby Walsh – to oppose lethal autonomous weapons.

The future of the US–Australia alliance

The rules based order supported by democratic alliances has done much to ensure global peace and development, but it must renew itself in the face of external threats and internal doubts to meet the challenges it faces today.

Alliances in the time of hybrid warfare

The US–Australia partnership must develop in this time of increasing super-power competition to take account of the changing forms and complexities of tactics and warfare.

Defence must adapt fast, or fail

The overwhelming speed of technological development means armed forces must change their approach to everything from who they recruit and train to how targets are attacked and how a nation defends itself.

An army is made of its people

The 100th anniversary of the Battle of Hamel has been remembered as the first time American troops fought under an Australian general and a textbook study of how to plan an attack. However the individual stories from the battle underline the fact that an army is only as good as its people.

Eyes ‘wired’ open: preparing for chemical and biological threats

Is Australia preparing for the threat of chemical weapons, as used by Vladimir Putin’s Russia against dissidents in Britain, the Syrian regime against civilians and threatened by ISIS and other terrorist groups?