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Indo-pacific strategic futures dialogue and simulation + next generation leaders workshop
Alan Dupont participated in Session 1: Regional Perspectives on Indo-Pacific Strategic Objectives
There is an emerging consensus among US allies and partners that a free, open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific is in the interests of all nations and must be preserved. Beyond this broad vision for regional order, however, are a wide range of differences in national priorities, proximate interests, views about rules, norms and values, and geographic considerations. How do key regional countries define Indo-Pacific strategy and its objectives? Read more
Entrenched Islamic State ‘caliphate’ in Philippines could bring chemical, suicide attacks to Australian cities
There are growing signs that Islamic State cells are preparing for violent insurgencies in southern Philippines to build a prized so-called caliphate on Australia’s backdoor.
The establishment of an entrenched caliphate in the Philippines, at worst, brings the risk of suicide bombers and chemical weapons attacks in Australian cities, a leading Australian expert has warned. Read more
Tweets aside, US North Korea strategy is working.
The escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un has fuelled concerns that the region is on a dangerous trajectory to a nuclear conflict that could have calamitous global consequences. Since 1947, nuclear scientists have maintained a ‘Doomsday Clock’ that symbolically measures how close the world is to a man-made global cataclysm, represented by midnight. The clock now shows two and a half minutes to midnight and ticking, the closest it has been to catastrophe since the US exploded the first hydrogen bomb in 1953. Read more
Danger Ahead as Asia’s Long Peace Ends
The latest volley of North Korean ballistic missiles, one of which flew over northern Japan, has pushed tensions on the Korean peninsula to a perilous tipping point where war is no longer unimaginable. The real prospect of a military conflict between nuclear-armed North Korea and the US and its allies underscores the recent deterioration in Australia’s security environment. It raises the question of whether our foreign policy is calibrated for the challenges ahead in a world that is becoming a far more dangerous and volatile place.
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Protect northern cities from North Korean nukes, warn analysts
Australia’s forthcoming foreign affairs white paper needs to factor in the potential threat posed by North Korea’s ballistic missiles to our northernmost cities and to embrace stronger ties with the US and Japan, analysts say. Read more
Korea’s Kim Baits Trump with Missile
North Korea’s provocative test launch of a new ballistic missile last weekend is a sobering reminder that Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program is one of the world’s most dangerous and intractable security issues. Read more
Joko Widodo’s visit a chance to build solid partnership
President Joko Widodo’s forthcoming visit to Australia is an opportunity to reset relations with Indonesia after three years of remarkable turbulence, even by the volatile standards of the past.
But a cautionary reminder: Australian governments are prone to excessive exuberance about the prospects for enhanced relations with Indonesia Read more
Lessons in Indonesia’s pushback approach to Sino aggression
China’s behaviour in the South China Sea is beginning to resemble that of the imperialist great powers it once condemned. Its fishing boats are now intruding regularly into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone around the Natuna Island group at the southern end of the South China Sea, jeopardising relations with Southeast Asia’s largest state and directly challenging the rules based order which Australia supports. Read more
China picks an unlikely fight in its battle for territory in the South China Sea
Less than a week after an Indonesian warship clashed with a fleet of Chinese fishing vessels off the coast of the Natuna Islands, the symbolism was unmistakable.
On Thursday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo presided over a cabinet meeting on the exact same ship, the KRI Imam Bonjol, near where the clash took place, more than 1000km north of his usual political areana in the capital Jakarta. Read more