DFNS.net Policy Edition
By Rod Lyon President Trump’s excitable rhetoric about US military options in relation to North Korea—‘fire and fury’, ‘locked and loaded’—has attracted considerable media attention in recent days. But look behind the rhetoric. Allied...
By Michael Chi Getting a handle on the ‘cyber’ It’s been a big week in internet regulation, with unsavoury activities being plugged left and right. GoDaddy, a major domain registration service, evicted the Daily...
By Katharine H.S. Moon As North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s and US President Donald Trump’s war of words escalated, Independence Day celebrations—commemorating the Korean peninsula’s 1945 liberation from Japanese colonial rule—was unfolding in both...
By Interpreter Staff Update: Russia’s Elections Commission chief has said opposition leader Alexei Navalny can only run in the elections if he appeals his criminal sentence — or the election law is changed. The...
By Kyle Wilson On 3 July, two of the planet’s three most powerful leaders met in Moscow. It was their 20th encounter at least since March 2013 and the latest in a long Sino-Russian...
By Grant Walton and Husnia Hushang In Papua New Guinea, government responses to corruption have received a great deal of media attention over the past decade (see here and here). Despite this coverage, there...
By Mark Cancian After threatening to rain four missiles around Guam, North Korea’s pudgy leader, Kim Jong-un appeared to back off today. The official North Korean News Agency issued a fabulous tweet describing it,...
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. The return of the Russian threat has spurred US allies to pay new attention to collective defense, not just in Europe but in the North Atlantic. No ally is...
By Claude Rakisits On 1 August, the parliament of Pakistan overwhelmingly elected Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the new prime minister following the Supreme Court’s decision to unanimously declare that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was...
By Jack Viola, Eliza Chapman, Harley Comrie and Jacqueline Westermann Sea state It looks like the Russian government might have spoofed naval GPS in the Baltic Sea. A report from an American ship says...
By Interpreter Staff Ukraine Day 1272: LIVE UPDATES BELOW. One Ukrainian soldier was killed stepping on a Mine; 4 others were wounded in action and 3 were concussed. Yesterday’s coverage of the Ukraine conflict...
By John Coyne If our domestic security agencies’ past operational achievements (see, for example, here and here) are anything to go by, the success of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Home Affairs portfolio seems inevitable....
By Interpreter Staff Update: Four men have been arrested for dancing the lezginka in Gelendzhik, a resort town where President Vladimir Putin is said to have a palace. The previous issue is here. Recent...
By Elsina Wainwright The Trump administration’s evolving UN policy is a case study in how policymaking in the administration remains a work in progress amid competing worldviews, absent or unclear guidance, and an idiosyncratic...
By Nic Maclellan Stephen Howes has reacted critically to a recent article in The Guardian, which highlighted exploitation of workers under Australia’s Seasonal Worker Program (SWP). Earlier this year, he made similar criticisms of...
By Steve Mollman, Quartz The exercises are preceded by threats and developments unique to 2017. …read more From:: Government Executive (Policy)
By Christiaan Triebert An illegal artisanal gold mine on the edges of the Atewa Forest Reserve. Source: A Rocha Ghana. Executive Summary Ghana has agreed with China to develop its bauxite industry, but concerns...
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. “All warfare is based on deception,” Sun Tzu wrote 2,500 years ago. It’s a lesson the US military largely forgot after the Cold War, when we got in the...
By Leif-Eric Easley In July 2017, North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that it claims can deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in the world. Pyongyang tends to exaggerate its military capabilities, but its...
By Kate Grayson I agree with Peter Jennings’ assessment that the 2017 Independent Intelligence Review seems to have been almost overshadowed by the Turnbull government’s announcement of the new Home Affairs portfolio. The 23...
By Brahma Chellaney The more power China has accumulated, the more it has attempted to achieve its foreign-policy objectives with bluff, bluster, and bullying. But, as its Himalayan border standoff with India’s military continues,...