Analysis

The quiet part out loud: Finally, there is recognition that we’re not a ‘serious’ middle power
Despite the rhetoric and bluster of successive Australian governments, there is finally dawning recognition of a stark and confronting reality:...
January 21 2026
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On notice: Australia warned to prepare for, accept Taiwanese ‘reunification’
China’s top diplomat in Australia is no stranger to causing controversy. Now he has warned that Australia must accept the “reunification” of Taiwan with the...
January 20 2026
Living in a fairy tale: Was the ‘global rules-based order’ little more than a myth?
Over the course of my weekend reading, it suddenly hit me ... maybe, just maybe, the “global rules-based order” is little more than a comforting fairy tale...
January 19 2026
Emerging trends, impending product debuts and what to expect for SHOT Show 2026
Industry representatives are already on the ground or heading over to SHOT Show 2026 in the United States, with that in mind, we speculate on the upcoming trends, impending...
January 16 2026
Right-wing identity politics: Increasingly loud, extremely close, and growing in threat
The ability to politically connect with others, share insights and engage in public discourse with people you agree and disagree with is one of the beauties of democracy....
January 15 2026
Avoiding the mistakes of the past: How Australia can learn lessons from the US, Soviet competition
Amid accelerating geopolitical competition and ongoing debate about Australia’s defence spending, we would do well to avoid the lessons of the Soviet Union, which...
January 14 2026
World of ‘might makes right’ to serve as Australia’s coming-of-age moment
As questions continue to swirl about the end of the “global rules-based order” in the aftermath of America’s raid in Venezuela and the return of an era...
January 13 2026
Luckey forecasts American return to ‘weapons sales, friendship’ with reformed China
“America will have a great international friendship and sell weapons to a reformed China in the future”, according to US defence technology entrepreneur Palmer...
January 12 2026
Wait a minute, is America invading Greenland?
US President Donald J Trump is no stranger to using military threats as a political play, with much of his second term, thus far, being defined by his foreign policy moves,...
January 09 2026
Nuclear proliferation is back on the menu as regional competition drives anxiety
With regional power struggles and conflict setting the scene for intensified geopolitical and strategic competition in 2026, nuclear proliferation may once again be a major...
January 08 2026
The old order is dead, long live the new world order
As the saying goes, “The king is dead, long live the king” and nowhere is that a truer statement than in the case of the international “rules-based”...
January 07 2026
The front inside Australia: How China, Iran and Turkey project power through diaspora coercion
Opinion: Bondi exposed how Australia confronts visible terror decisively but still hesitates to name and stop quieter foreign-state coercion of diaspora communities that...
January 06 2026
2025 was a big year for China’s military, it’s only going to continue
The year 2025 has been a major mask slip moment for the scale, scope and reach of Beijing’s military modernisation efforts, with Australia and its partners put on...
January 02 2026
The answer to our economic woes? National capitalism in the multipolar era
Amid rising concerns over Australia’s economic productivity, resilience and competitiveness and the flow-on risks for national security, questions are increasingly...
December 18 2025
Australian, Japanese strategic interests converge at critical juncture
Australian and Japanese strategic interests are progressively converging in the new era of Indo-Pacific strategic anxiety.
December 18 2025
Arresting the decline of globalisation: Should Australia and Japan establish a new ‘Co-Prosperity Sphere’?
As the era of hyper-globalisation gives way to more siloed, contested and “neo-nationalist” economic systems, trade is becoming the new norm, but that...
December 17 2025
Allies put on notice: US National Security Strategy has major implications for Australia
The long-awaited Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy has finally been handed down, with major implications for Australia and other partner nations,...
December 16 2025
Bondi was a national security message
Opinion: Strategic analyst Shay Gal says the Bondi attack was a deliberate probe, using a visible Jewish community to test Australia’s security, expose public-space...
December 15 2025
Blurred lines: Can China’s international fishing fleet break Australian fish stocks and national spirit?
A land girt by sea could be particularly vulnerable to grey-zone warfare tactics designed to break the ecosystem or civilian relationship with that sea.
December 11 2025
US and China global power struggle not a repeat of Cold War, says former CDF Campbell
The global power struggle between the United States and China is not a repeat of the Cold War, according to recent comments made by former Australian Defence Force Chief of...
December 10 2025