Australians have long worried about whether Indonesia is ‘special’ or ‘normal’. Instead, we need to deal with Indonesia as it really is—a country experiencing simultaneously the challenges of political reform, economic development and a shifting regional security environment. The countr...

Leaders in Washington, Beijing and Canberra breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Taiwanese President Ma Ying Jeou was elected for a second term on 14 January. Ma’s re-election will see him continue to propel Taiwan along a path that has seen the island forge its strongest relationship with the mainland since t...

The death of Osama bin Laden and the emergence of the Arab Spring has de-emphasised many political grievances that have driven terrorist attacks in the past. However, jihadist ideology still presents a potent form of rebellion against alienation and US foreign policy. Until the ideology itself, not just its adherent...

Japan has endured a difficult couple of decades, but probably confronts another. With its economy stalled, its political system still evolving towards a genuine multiparty system, and its population ageing and shrinking, it confronts a daunting array of domestic challenges.  The great East Asian earthquake of M...

This Strategy report examines the shifting patterns of global terrorism. It is the first major ASPI report on terrorism since the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the geographic, operational and ideological trends that are driving the current wave of ji...

This report, authored by Athol Yates and Anthony Bergin, suggests that Asia–Pacific states need to allocate greater resources to risk reduction activities and increase the speed and effectiveness of relief efforts.

Australia, Japan and the US are active in promoting disaster risk management as a key comp...

In this paper, Andrew Davies and Edward Mortimer look at Australia's energy security. Energy is the lifeblood of modern economies. The correlation between energy consumption and prosperity is strong—and that's unlikely to change. Those simple observations have some profound implications.

Au...

This report, authored by Richard Herr and Anthony Bergin, suggests that with rising Chinese influence in the region, the US appears to doubt that Australia can deliver on South Pacific issues.

The Pacific Island members of the United Nations now meet under the rubric of the Pacific Small Islands Developing Sta...

October was cybersecurity month in Washington. On Capitol Hill and in several think tanks around town, US policymakers and analysts focused on various aspects of the cybersecurity problem, from the nature and scale of global cyber threats, to the possible commercial, diplomatic and military responses.

Followin...

The future submarine project is potentially the nation's biggest ever engineering undertaking. But at the moment it is making little progress. In part that's because the ongoing saga of the Collins fleet is making decision makers uncomfortable with the idea of 'throwing good money after bad'. And in ...

Providing the ADF with state of the art equipment can be a challenging business. Sometimes the world market can provide a proven solution with the right level of capability, but often that isn't the case. Then it's a matter of either accepting a more modest level of performance or going down the path of deve...