Law, politics and intelligence: a life of Robert Hope

In Law, politics and intelligence: a life of Robert Hope, Peter Edwards delivers a masterclass in the governance, or lack of it, of Australia’s security and intelligence services in the post-war era.

Time to review the Port Darwin lease

China is an important partner for Australia. But who owns our critical infrastructure is not a question about our relationship with China. It’s about our sovereignty.

Optimising Australia’s COVID-19 border policy

COVID-19 has divided Australia in a manner unprecedented since federation, with the closure of once arbitrary state borders becoming geographical and political fault lines. But Australia’s less-debated international border measures also call for greater scrutiny.

Time for a domestic security white paper

Areas such as counterterrorism, foreign interference, transnational organised crime, cybercrime, anti-corruption, money-laundering and financial crimes require strong leadership and effective national coordination.

How Australian industry helped win the Pacific war

The efforts of Australian industry, as well as the heroism of its troops, supported allied efforts to wrest victory over Japan in the Pacific theatre in World War Two.

The missing pieces in Australia’s security strategy

A more comprehensive national strategy should involve a commitment that optimises the deployment of all policy instruments — diplomatic and economic, as well as military — to safeguard Australia’s national interests abroad.

Australia’s new defence paradigm

Prompted by China’s increasingly coercive international behaviour, Australia’s revised defence policy looks to protect Australian interests and support global resistance to Beijing’s rising brutality.

Walking the walk

The new force structure plan sets a clear direction for Australia’s military that engages with the new world we are living in. It positions Australia to resist coercion and deter conflict but now the hard work of implementation must begin.

Embracing cloud computing in national security

Policy makers should look beyond current technical security standards to unlock the capability benefit that cloud computing can bring to Australia’s national security.

Learning the lessons

Australian governments at all levels should have learned a lot between the onset of the bushfire season and the first stages of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus threatens both dictatorships and democracies

The economic and social impact of the fast spreading coronavirus could threaten both democratic and dictatorial systems in the months to come.

The danger of intelligence ‘scope creep’

While Australians are often hawkish about community safety and border security, they’re far less accepting of their security agencies being given new domestic surveillance powers without government making a strong case for their use.