by Michael Shoebridge | Nov 11, 2023 | China, Defence Budget, Indo Pacific, Policy, Strategy & Capability
You have to wonder what Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Cook Islands’ Mark Brown make of prime minister Albanese’s combined visits to them in the last three weeks. Looked at individually, each visit makes sense. But the problem is that, unlike the pre-internet days, what...
by Michael Shoebridge | Nov 4, 2023 | China, Indo Pacific, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping in Beijing this week is the culmination of the Albanese government’s efforts to show it has stabilised the bilateral relationship between Australia and China. The stated goal expressed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong...
by Peter Jennings | Oct 24, 2023 | China, Strategy & Capability
Yet another review has defended the absurd 2015 Northern Territory decision to lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company for 99 years. The lease continues to dog successive federal governments and is undermining defence planning. Just weeks into replacing Tony...
by Peter Jennings | Oct 23, 2023 | Indo Pacific, Policy
Israel’s intelligence services and military were clearly surprised by the Hamas attack but an equal mystery understanding what strategic goal Hamas was trying to achieve. Achieving surprise delivered Hamas a brief tactical advantage and a propaganda coup but the...
by Peter Jennings | Sep 27, 2023 | China, Defence Budget, South Pacific
There was a touch of Fidel Castro in Manasseh Sogavare’s speech at the UN last week. In a collarless Mao suit the Solomon Islands Prime Minister Sogavare delivered an ardent tirade against the “toxic mix of geopolitical power politics” afflicting the Pacific. Barring...
